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LIFE OF LUTHEE 



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LIFE OF LUTHEE 



BY 

JULIUS KOSTLIN 

II 



WISH ILLUSTRATIONS from AUTHENTIC SOURCES 



TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN 



NEW YORK 
CHAKLES SCKIBNER'S SON 

1913 






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READING ROOM 

MOV »o iw» 



AUTHOR 'S D EDICA TION 

TO 

MY DEAR WIFE 
PAULINE 

WITH THE WORDS OF LUTHER 

'God's highest gift on earth is to have a pious, 
cheerful, God-fearing, home-keeping wife 



ATJTHOB'S PBEFACE. 



No German has ever influenced so powerfully as Luther 
the religious life, and, through it, the whole history, of his 
people ; none has ever reflected so faithfully, in his whole 
personal character and conduct, the peculiar features of 
that life and history, and been enabled by that very means 
to render us a service so effectual and so popular. If we 
recall to fresh life and remembrance the great men of 
past ages, we Germans shall always put Luther in the 
van : for us Protestants, the object of our love and venera- 
tion, who will not prevent, however, or prejudice the most 
candid historical inquiry; for others, a rock of offence, 
whom even slander and falsehood will never overcome. 

I have already in my larger work, * Martin Luther : his 
Life and Writings,' 2 vols., 1875, put together all the 
materials available for that subject, together with the 
necessary references, historical and critical, and have 
endeavoured to explain and illustrate at length the subject 
matter of his various writings. I now offer this sketch 



x AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 

of his life to the wide circle of what are called educated 
German readers. For further explanations and proofs of 
statements herein contained I would refer them to my 
larger work. Further investigation has prompted me to 
make some alterations, but only a few, in matters of 
detail. 

For the illustrations I beg to express my warm thanks, 
and those of the publisher, to the friends who have kindly 
assisted us in the work. 

J. KOSTLIN, 

Professor at the University of Halle -Wittenberg. 

Oct. 31, 1881, the anniversary of Luther's 95 Theses. 



CONTENTS, 



PAET I. 

LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH, UP TO HIS 
ENTERING THE CONVENT.— U83-15Q5. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Birth and Parentage 1 

II. Childhood and School-days 10 

III. Student-days at Erfurt and Entry into the Convent. — 1501- 

1505 28 



PAET n. 

LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR, UNTIL 
HIS ENTRY ON THE WAR OF REFORMATION. 
—1505-1517. 

L At the Convent at Erfurt, till 1508 40 

II. Call to Wittenberg. Journey to Koine • • « • • 57 
III. Luther as Theological Teacher, to 1517 • • • . • 64 



PAET in. 

THE BREACH WITH ROME, UP TO THE DIET 
OF WORMS.— 1517-1521. 

I. The Ninety-five Theses ... c ... 82 

II. The Controversy concerning Indulgences 95 

III. Luther at Augsburg before Caietan. Appeal to a Council . 108 



xii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

IV. Miltitz and the Disputation at Leipzig, with its Results . . 122 

V. Luther's further Work, Writings, and Inward Progress until 

1520 . . ." 150 

VI. Alliance with the Humanists and Nobility 168 

VII. Crisis of Secession : Luther's Works — to the Christian Nobility 

of the German Nation, and on the Babylonian Captivity . 188 

VIII. The Bull of Excommunication, and Luther's Reply . . . 203 

IX. The Diet of Worms . 222 



PAET IV. 

FROM. THE DIET OF WORMS TO THE PEA- 
S ANTS' WAR AND LUTHER'S MARRIAGE. 

I. Luther at the Wartburg, to his Visit to Wittenberg in 1521 . 246 

II. Luther's further Sojourn at the Wartburg, and his Return to 

Wittenberg, 1522 263 

III. Luther's Reappearance and fresh Labours at Wittenberg, 1522 273 

IV. Luther and his anti-Catholic work of Reformation, up to 1525 286 
V. The Reformer against the Fanatics and Peasants, up to 1525 304 

VI. Luther's Marriage 325 



PAET V. 

LUTHER AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE 
CHURCH, TO THE FIRST RELIGIOUS PEACE. 
—1525-1532. 

I. Survey. 336 

II. Continued Labours and Personal Life 344 

HI. Erasmus and Henry VIII. Controversy with Zwingli and his 

Followers, up to 1528 372 



, CONTENTS. xiil 

CHAPTER PAGE 

IV. Church Divisions in Germany. War with the Turks. The 

Conference at Marburg, 1529 384 

V. The Diet of Augsburg, and Luther at Coburg, 1530 . . . 402 

VI. From the Diet of Augsburg to the Eeligious Peace of Nurem- 
berg, 1532. Death of the Elector John . . . .427 



PAET VI. 

FROM THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF NUREMBERG 
TO THE DEATH OF LUTHER. 

I. Luther under John Frederick 443 

II. Negotiations respecting a Council and Union among the Pro- 
testants. The Legate Vergerius, 1535. The Wittenberg 
Concord, 1536 462 

III. Negotiations respecting a Council and Union among the Pro- 

testants (continued). The Meeting at Schmalkald, 1537. 475 
Peace with the Swiss 

IV. Other Labours and Proceedings, 1533-39. The Archbishop 

Albert and Schonitz. Agricola ...... 489 

V. Luther and the Progress and Internal Troubles of Protes- 
tantism, 1538-41 502 

VI. Luther and the Progress and Internal Troubles of Protes- 
tantism (continued), 1541-44 ...... 518 

VII. Luther's Later Life ; Domestic and Personal • . 534 

nil. Luther's Last Year and Death . • . 6 . . 560 



LIST OF ILLUSTBATIONS. 



Luthee. (From a Portrait by Cranach in the Town Church at 
Weimar) Frontispiece 

1. Coat of Arms 2 

2. Hans Luthee 6 

3. Margaret Luthee . . .7 

4. Luthee's Cell at Eefuet 44 

5. Staupitz. (From the Portrait in St. Peter's Convent at Salzburg) 52 

6. Title and Peeface of Penitential Psalms 75 

7. Spalatin. (From L. Cranach's Portrait) . , . . .77 

8. Eeasmus. (From the Portrait by A. Diirer) 79 

9- Leo X. (From his Portrait by Eaphael) 83 

10. The Aechbishop Albeet. (From Durer's engraving) . . . 85 

11. Title-page of a Pamphlet weitten at the beginning of the 

Eefoemation, with an Illustration showing the Sale of Indul- 
gences 

12. The Castle Chuech. (From the Wittenberg Book of Belies, 

1509) 

13. The Empeeoe Maximilian. (From his Portrait by Albert Diirer) 128 

14. Duke Geoege of Saxony. (From an old woodcut) . . . 134 

15. Luthee. (From an engraving of Cranach, in 1520) . 

16. De. John Eck. (From an old woodcut) 

17. Melancthon. (From a Portrait by Diirer) 

18. Lucas Ceanach. (From a Portrait by himself) 

19. W. Piekheimee. (From a Portrait by Albert Diirer) 

20. Uleich von Hutten. (From an old woodcut) 

21. Feancis von Sickingen. (From an old engraving) . 



87 



90 



140 
142 
153 
157 
173 
177 
181 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xv 

PAGE 

Title-page op the second edition of Luther's Treatise to the 

Christian Nobility oe the German Nation .... 197 
Title-page, slightly reduced, of the original Tract ' On the Liberty 

of a Christian Man ' . . 207 

Charles V. (From an engraving by B. Beham, in 1531) . . 225 
Luther. (From an engraving by Cranach, in 1521) . . . . 237 
Luther as " Squire George." (From a woodcut by Cranach) . 247 
Bugenhagen. (From a picture by Cranach in his album, at 

Berlin, 1543) 278 

Munzer. (From an old woodcut) 323 

Luther. (From a Portrait by Cranach in 1525.) At Wittenberg . 332 
Catharine von Bora, Luther's wife. (From a Portrait by 

Cranach about 1525.) At Berlin 333 

Luther's Bing from Catharine 334 

Luther's Double Bing. . . 334 

The Saxon Electors, Frederick the Wise, John, and John 
Frederick. (From a Picture by Cranach. \ At Nuremberg . 338 

Facsimile of Frederick's signature - 339 

Philip of Hesse. (From a woodcut of Brosamer) . . . 341 
Luther. (From a Portrait by Cranach in 1528.) At Berlin . . 362 
Luther's Wife. (From a Portrait by Cranach in 1528.) At 

Berlin 363 

Zwingli. (From an old engraving) 375 

Facsimile of the Superscription and Signature to the Mar- 
burg Articles 397 

Veit Dietrich, as Pastor of Nuremberg. (From an old woodcut) 406 
Luther's Seal. (Taken from letters written in 1517) . . . 416 
Luther's Coat of Arms. (From old prints) .... 416 
Butzer. (From the old original woodcut of Beusner) . . . 460 
Agricola. (From a miniature Portrait by Cranach, in the Uni- 
versity Album at Wittenberg, 1531) 497 

Jonas. (From a Portrait by Cranach, in his Album at Berlin, 

1543) 519 

Amsdorf. (From an old woodcut) . . ... . 522 

Luther. (From a Portrait by Cranach, in his Album, at Berlin) 535 

Wittenberg. (From an old engraving) 537 

The " Luther-House " (previously the Convent), before its re- 
cent restoration 538 

Luther's Boom 539 

Luther's Daughter * Lene.' (From Cranach's Portrait) . . 545 
Door of Luther's House at Wittenberg 54$ 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



FIG. 



PAGE 



53. Mathesius. (From an old woodcut) 555 

54. Luther in 1546. (From a woodcut of Cranach) . .. . 570 

55. Jonas' Glass 571 

56. Address of Luther's Letter of February 7 . . . 575 

57. Luther after Death. (From a Picture ascribed to Cranach) . 579 

58. Cast of Luther after Death. (At Halle) 580 



LUTHER'S LIFE. 



PAET I. 

LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH UP TO HIS 
ENTERING THE CONVENT.— 1483-1505. 



CHAPTEE I. 

BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 



On the 10th of November, 1483, their first child was born to 
a young couple, Hans and Margaret Luder, at Eisleben, in 
Saxony, where the former earned his living as a miner. That 
child was Martin Luther. 

His parents had shortly before removed thither from 
Mohra, the old home of his family. This place, called in 
old records More and More, lies among the low hills where 
the Thuringian chain of wooded heights runs out westwards 
towards the valley of the Werra, about eight miles south of 
Eisenach, and four miles north of Salzungen, close to the 
railway which now connects these two towns. Luther thus 
comes from the very centre of Germany. The ruler there 
was the Elector of Saxony. 

Mohra was an insignificant village, without even a 
priest of its own, and with only a chapel affiliated to the 
church of the neighbouring parish. The population con- 
sisted for the most part of independent peasants, with 

£ 



2 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 

house and farmstead, cattle and horses. Mining, more- 
over, was being carried on there in the fifteenth century, 
and copper was being discovered in the copper schist, of 
which the names of Schieferhalden and Schlackenhaufen 
still survive to remind us. The soil was not very favourable 
for agriculture, and consisted partly of moorland, which gave 
the place its name. Those peasants who possessed land 
were obliged to work extremely hard. They were a strong 
and sturdy race. 

From this peasantry sprang Luther. ' I am a pea- 
sant's son,' he said once to Melancthon in conversation. 
'"My father, grandfather — all my ancestors were thorough 
peasants.' 

His father's relations were to be found in several 
families and houses in Mohra, and even scattered in the 
country around. The name was then written Luder, and 
also Ludher, Luder, and Leuder. AVe find the name of 
Luther for the first time as that of Martin Luther, the 
Professor at Wittemberg, shortly before he entered on his 
war of Reformation, and from him it was adopted by the 
other branches of the family. Originally it was 
not a surname, but a Christian name, identical 
with Lothar, which signifies one renowned in 
battle. A very singular coat of arms, consist- 
IE^' 1 ing of a cross-bow, with a rose on each side, 
Coat of arms ^^ °een handed clown through, no doubt, 
many generations in the family, and is to be 
seen on the seal of Luther's brother James. The origin 
of these arms is unknown ; the device leads one to con- 
clude that the family must have blended with another 
by intermarriage, or by succeeding to its property. Con- 
temporaneous records exist to show how conspicuously 
the relatives of Luther, at Mohra and in the district, 
shared the sturdy character of the local peasantry, always 
ready for self-help, and equally ready for fisticuffs. Firmly 
and resolutely, for many generations, and amidst grievous 




BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 3 

persecutions and disorders, such as visited Mohra in 
particular during the Thirty Years' War, this race main- 
tained its ground. Three families of Luther exist there at 
this day, who are all engaged in agriculture ; and a striking 
likeness to the features of Martin Luther may still be 
trac-ed in' many of his descendants, and even in other in- 
habitants of Mohra. Not less remarkable, as noted by 
one who is familiar with the present people of the place, 
are the depth of feeling and strong common sense which 
distinguish them, in general, to this day. The house in 
which Luther's grandfather lived, or rather that which was 
afterwards built on the site, can still, it is believed, but not 
with certainty, be identified. Near this house stands now 
a statue of Luther in bronze. 

At Mohra, then, Luther's father, Hans, had grown up to 
manhood. His grandfather's name was Henry, but of him 
we hear nothing during Luther's time. His grandmother 
died in 1521. His mother's maiden name was Ziegler ; we 
afterwards find relations of hers at Eisenach ; the other old 
account, which made her maiden name Linclemann, pro- 
bably originated from confusing her with Luther's grand- 
mother. 

What brought Hans to Eisleben was the copper mining, 
which here, and especially in the county of Mansfeld, to 
which Eisleben belonged, had prospered to an extent never 
known around Mohra, and was even then in full swing of 
activity. At Eisleben, the miners' settlements soon formed 
two new quarters of the town. Hans had, as we know, two 
brothers, and very possibly there were more of the family, 
so that the paternal inheritance had to be divided. He 
was evidently the eldest of the brothers, of whom one, Heinz, 
or Henry, who owned a farm of his own, was still living in 
1540, ten years after the death of Hans. But at Mohra 
the law of primogeniture, which vests the possession of the 
land in the eldest son, was not recognised ; either the pro- 
perty was equally divided, or, as was customary in other 

b2 



4 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 

parts of the country, the estate fell to the share of the 
youngest. This custom was referred to in after years by 
Luther in his remark that in this world, according to civil 
law, the youngest son is the heir of his father's house. 

We must not omit to notice the other reasons which 
have been assigned for his leaving his old home. It has 
been repeatedly asserted, in recent times, and even by Pro- 
testant writers, that the father of our great Reformer had 
sought to escape the consequences of a crime committed by 
him at Mohra. The matter stands thus : In Luther's life- 
time his Catholic opponent Witzel happened to call out to 
Jonas, a friend of Luther's, in the heat of a quarrel, ' I 
might call the father of your Luther a murderer.' Twenty 
years later the anonymous author of a polemical work 
which appeared at Paris actually calls the Reformer ' the 
son of the Mohra assassin.' With these exceptions, not a 
trace of any story of this kind, in the writings of either 
friend or foe, can be found in that or in the following cen- 
tury. It was at the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
in an official report on mining at Mohra, that the story, 
evidently based on oral tradition, assumed all at once a 
more definite shape; the statement being that Luther's 
father had accidentally killed a peasant, who was mind- 
ing some horses grazing. This story has been told to 
travellers in our own time by people of Mohra, who have 
gone so far as to point out the fatal meadow. We are 
forced to notice it, not, indeed, as being in the least 
authenticated, but simply on account of the authority 
recently claimed for the tradition. For it is plain that 
what is now a matter of hearsay at Mohra was a story 
wholly unknown there not many years ago, was first 
introduced by strangers, and has since met with several 
variations at their hands. The idea of a criminal flying 
from Mohra to Mansfeld, which was only a few miles off, 
and was equally subject to the Elector of Saxony, is absurd, 
and in this case is strangely inconsistent with the honour- 



BIRTU AND PARENTAGE. 5 

able position soon attained, as we shall see, by Hans Luther 
himself at Mansfeld. Moreover, the very fact that Witzel's 
spiteful remark was long known to Luther's enemies, 
coupled with the fact that they never turned it to account, 
shows plainly how little they ventured to make it a matter 
of serious reproach. Luther during his lifetime had to 
hear from them that his father was a Bohemian heretic, 
his mother a loose woman, employed at the baths, and he 
himself a changeling, born of his mother and the Devil. 
How triumphantly would they have talked about the murder 
or manslaughter committed by his father, had the charge 
admitted of proof ! Whatever occurrence may have given 
rise to such a story, we have no right to ascribe it either 
to any fault or any crime of the father. More on this sub- 
ject it is needless to add ; the two strange statements we 
have mentioned do not attempt to establish any definite 
connection between the supposed crime and the removal to 
Eisleben. 

The day, and even the very hour, when her first-born 
came into the world, Luther's mother carefully treasured 
in her mind. It was between eleven and twelve o'clock at 
night. Agreeably to the custom of the time, he was 
baptised in the Church of St. Peter the next day. It was 
the feast of St. Martin, and he was called after that saint. 
Tradition still identifies the house where he was born ; it 
stands in the lower part of the town, close to St. Peter's 
Church. Several conflagrations, which devastated Eislebeiij 
have left it undestroyed. But of the original building only 
the walls of the ground-floor remain : within these there is a 
room facing the street, which is pointed out as the one 
where Luther first saw the light. The church was rebuilt 
soon after his birth, and was then called after St. Peter and 
St. Paul ; the present font still retains, it is said, some 
portions of the old one. 

When the child was six months old, his parents removed 
to the town of Mansfeld, about six miles off. So great 



6 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 

was the number of the miners who were then crowding 
to Eisleben, the most important place in the county, that 
we can well understand how Luther's father failed there 
to. realise his expectations, and went in search of better 
prospects to the other capital of the rich mining district. 
Here, at Mansfeld, or, more strictly, at Lower Mansfeld, 




Fig. 2. — Hans Luther. 



as it is called, from its position, and to distinguish it from 
Cloister-Mansfeld, he came among a people whose whole 
life and labour were devoted to mining. The town itself 
lay on the banks of a stream, inclosed by hills, on the edge 
of the Harz country. Above it towered the stately castle 
of the Counts, to whom the place belonged. The character 



BIRTH AND 1'ARENTACE. 7 

of the scenery is more severe, and the air harsher than in 
the neighbourhood of Mohra. Luther himself called his 
Mansfeld countrymen sons of the Harz. In the main, 
these Harz people are much rougher than the Thuringians. 
Here also, at first, Luther's parents found it a hard 
struggle to get on. 'My father," said the Reformer, 'was a 




"Pig. 3.— Margaret Luther. 



poor miner ; my mother carried in all the wood upon hep 
back ; they worked the flesh off their bones to bring us up : 
no one nowadays would ever have such endurance. It must 
not, however, be forgotten that carrying wood in those days 
was less a sign of poverty than now. Gradually their affairs 
improved. The whole working of the mines belonged to 



8 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 

the Counts, and they leased out single portions, called 
smelting furnaces, sometimes for lives, sometimes for a 
term of years. Hans Luther succeeded in obtaining two 
furnaces, though only on a lease of years. He must have 
risen in the esteem of his town-fellows even more rapidly 
than in outward prosperity. 

The magistracy of the town consisted of a bailiff, the 
chief landowners, and four of the community. Among 
these four Hans Luther appears in a public document as 
early as 1491. His children were numerous enough to 
cause him constant anxiety for their maintenance and 
education : there were at least seven of them, for we know 
of three brothers and three sisters of the Reformer. The 
Luther family never rose to be one of the rich families of 
Mansfeld, who possessed furnaces by inheritance, and in 
time became landowners ; but they associated with them, 
and in some cases numbered them among then intimate 
friends. The old Hans was also personalty known to his 
Counts, and was much esteemed by them. In 1520 the 
Reformer publicly appealed to their personal acquaintance 
with his father and himself, against the slanders cnculated 
about his origin. Hans, in course of time, bought himself 
a substantial dwelling-house in the principal street of the 
town. A small portion of it remains standing to this day. 
There is still to be seen a gateway, with a well-built arch of 
sandstone, which bears the Luther arms of cross-bow and 
roses, and the inscription J.L. 1530. This was, no doubt, 
the work of James Luther, in the year when his father Hans 
died, and he took possession of the property. It is only 
quite recently that the stone has so far decayed as to cause 
the arms and part of the inscription to peel off. 

The earliest personal accounts that we have of Luther's 
parents, date from the time when they already shared in 
the honour and renown acquired by their son. They fre- 
quently visited him at Wittenberg, and moved with simple 
dignity among his friends. The father, in particular, 



BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 9 

Melancthon describes as a man, who, by purity of character 
and conduct, won for himself universal affection and 
esteem. Of the mother he says that the worthy woman, 
amongst other virtues, was distinguished above all for her 
modesty, her fear of God, and her constant communion 
with God in prayer. Luther's friend, the Court-preacher 
Spalatin, spoke of her as a rare and exemplary woman. 
As regards their personal appearance, the Swiss Kessler 
describes them in 1522 as small and short persons, far 
surpassed by their son Martin in height and build; he 
adds, also, that they were dark-complexioned. Five years 
later their portraits were painted by Lucas Cranach : these 
are now to be seen in the Wartburg, and are the only ones 
of this couple which we possess. 1 In these portraits, the 
features of both the parents have a certain hardness ; they 
indicate severe toil during a long life. At the same time, 
the mouth and eyes of the father wear an intelligent, lively, 
energetic, and clever expression. He has also, as his son 
Martin observed, retained to old age a ' strong and hardy 
frame.' The mother looks more wearied by life, but 
resigned, quiet, and meditative. Her thin face, with its 
large bones, presents a mixture of mildness and gravity.' 
Spalatin was amazed, on seeing her for the first time in 
1522, how much Luther resembled her in bearing and 
features. Indeed, a certain likeness is observable between 
him and her portrait, in the eyes and the lower part of the 
face. At the same time, from what is known of the appear- 
ance of the Luthers who lived afterwards at Mohra, he 
must also have resembled his father's family. 

1 Strange to say, subsequently and even in our own days, a portrait of 
Martin Luther's wife in her old age has been mistaken for one of his 
mother. 



io LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 



CHAPTEE II. 

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 

As to the childhood of Martin Luther, and his further 
growth and mental development, at Mansfeld and else- 
where, we have absolutely no information from others to 
enlighten us. For this portion of his life we can only 
avail ourselves of occasional and isolated remarks of his 
own, partly met with in his writings, partly culled from his 
lips by Melancthon, or his physician Eatzeberger, or his 
pupil Mathesius, or other friends, and by them recorded 
for the benefit of posterity. These remarks are very im- 
perfect, but are significant enough to enable us to under- 
stand the direction which his inner life had taken, and 
which prepared him for his future calling. Nor less 
significant is the fact that those opponents who, from the 
commencement of his war with the Church, tracked out 
his origin, and sought therein for evidence to his detriment, 
have failed, for their part, to contribute anything new 
whatever to the history of his childhood and youth, al- 
though, as the Eeformer, he had plenty of enemies at his 
own and his parents' home, and several of the Counts of 
Mansfeld, in particular, continued in the Romish Church. 
There was nothing, therefore, dark or discreditable, at any 
rate, to be found attaching either to his home or to his 
own youth. 

It is said that childhood is a Paradise. Luther in after 
years found it joyful and edifying to contemplate the 
happiness of those little ones who know neither the cares 
of daily life nor the troubles of the soul, and enjoy with 



CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. n 

light hearts the good thing which God has given them. 
But in his own reminiscences of life, so far as he has given 
them, no such sunny childhood is reflected. The hard 
time, which his parents at first had to struggle through at 
Mansfeld, had to be shared in by the children, and the lot 
fell most hardly on the eldest. As the former spent their 
days in hard toil, and persevered in it with unflinching 
severity, the tone of the house was unusually earnest and 
severe. The upright, honourable, industrious father was 
honestly resolved to make a useful man of his son, and 
enable him to rise higher than himself. He strictly main- 
tained at all times his paternal authority. After his death, 
Martin recorded, in touching language, instances of his 
father's love, and the sweet intercourse he was permitted 
to have with him. But it is not surprising, if, at the period 
of childhood, so peculiarly in need of tender affection, the 
severity of the father was felt rather too much. He was 
once, as he tells us, so severely flogged by his father that 
he fled from him, and bore him a temporary grudge. Luther, 
in speaking of the discipline of children, has even quoted 
his mother as an example of the way in which parents, 
with the best intentions, are apt to go too far in punishing, 
and forget to pay due attention to the peculiarities of each 
child. His mother, he said, once whipped him till the blood 
came, for having taken a paltry little nut. He adds, that, 
in punishing children, the apple should be placed beside 
the rod, and they should not be chastised for an offence 
about nuts or cherries as if they had broken open a 
money-box. His parents, he acknowledged, had meant it 
for the very best, but they had kept him, nevertheless, 
so strictly that he had become shy and timid. Theirs, 
however, was not that unloving severity which blunts the 
spirit of a child, and leads to artfulness and deceit. Their 
strictness, well intended, and proceeding from a genuine 
moral earnestness of purpose, furthered in him a strictness 
and tenderness of conscience, which then and in after years 



12 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 

made him deeply and keenly sensitive of every fault com« 
mitted in the eyes of God ; a sensitiveness, indeed, which, 
so far from relieving him of fear, made him apprehensive on 
account of sms that existed only in his imagination, It 
was a later consequence of this discipline, as Luther him- 
self informs us, that he took refuge in a convent. He adds, 
at the same time, that it is better not to spare the rod 
with children even from the very cradle, than to let them 
grow up without any punishment at all ; and that it is 
pure mercy to young folk to bend then- wills, even though it 
costs labour and trouble, and leads to threats and blows. 

We have a reference by Luther to the lessons he learned 
in childhood from his experience of poverty at home, in his 
remarks in later life, on the sons of poor men, who by 
sheer hard work raise themselves from obscurity, and have 
much to endure, and no time to strut and swagger, but 
must be humble and learn to be silent and to trust in God, 
and to whom God also has given good sound heads. 

As to Luther's relations with his brothers and sisters we 
have the testimony of one who knew the household at 
Mansfeld, and particularly his brother James, that from 
childhood they were those of brotherly companionship, 
and that from his mother's own account he had exercised 
a governing influence both by word and deed on the good 
conduct of the younger members of the family. 

His father must have taken him to school at a very 
early age. Long after, in fact only two years before his 
death, he noted down- in the Bible of a * good old friend,' 
Emler, a townsman of Mansfeld, his recollection how, more 
than once, Emler, as the elder, had carried him, still a 
weakly child, to and from school ; a proof, not indeed, as a 
Catholic opponent of the next century imagined, that it 
was necessary to compel the boy to go to school, but that 
he was still of an age to benefit by being carried. The 
school-house, of which the lower portion still remains, stood 
at the upper end of the little town, part of which runs 



CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 13 

with steep streets up the hill. The children there were 
taught not only reading and writing, but also the rudiments 
of Latin, though doubtless in a very clumsy and mechanical 
fashion. From his experience of the teaching here, Luther 
speaks in later years of the vexations and torments with 
declining and conjugating and other tasks which school 
children in his youth had to undergo. The severity he 
there met with from his teacher was a very different thing 
from the strictness of his parents. Schoolmasters, he says, 
in those days were tyrants and executioners, the schools 
were prisons and hells, and in spite of blows, trembling, 
fear, and misery, nothing was ever taught. He had been 
whipped, he tells us, fifteen times one morning, without any 
fault of his own, having been called on to repeat what he 
had never been taught. 

At this school he remained till he was fourteen, when 
his father resolved to send him to a better and higher-class 
place of education. He chose for that purpose Magdeburg ; 
but what particular school he attended is not known. His 
friend Mathesius tells us that the town-school there was 
' far renowned above manj- others.' Luther himself says 
that he went to school with the Null-brethren. These Null- 
brethren or Noll-brethren, as they were called, were a 
brotherhood of pious clergymen and laymen, who had com- 
bined together, but without taking any vows, to promote 
among themselves the salvation of their souls and the 
practice of a godly life, and to labour at the same time 
for the social and moral welfare of the people, by preaching 
the Word of God, by instruction, and by spiritual ministra- 
tion. They undertook in particular the care of youth. 
They were, moreover, the chief originators of the great 
movement in Germany, at that time, for promoting in- 
tellectual culture, and reviving the treasures of ancient 
Eoman and Greek literature. Since 1488 a colony of them 
had existed at Magdeburg, which had come from Hildesheim, 
one of their head-quarters. As there is no evidence of their 



14 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 

having had a school of their own at Magdeburg, they may 
have devoted their services to the town- school. Thither, 
then, Hans Luther sent his eldest son in 1497. The idea 
had probably been suggested by Peter Eeinicke, the overseer 
of the mines, who had a son there. With this son John, 
who afterwards rose to an important office in the mines at 
Mansfeld, Martin Luther contracted a lifelong friendship. 
Hans, however, only let his son remain one year at 
Magdeburg, and then sent him to school at Eisenach. 
Whether he was induced to make this change by finding 
his expectations of the school not sufficiently realised, or 
whether other reasons, possibly those regarding a cheaper 
maintenance of his son, may have determined him in the 
matter, there is no evidence to show. What strikes one 
here only is his zeal for the better education of his son. 

Eatzeberger is the only one who tells us of an incident 
he heard of Luther from his own lips, during his stay at 
Magdeburg, and this was one which, as a physician, he 
relates with interest. Luther, it happened, was lying sick 
of a burning fever, and tormented with thirst, and in the 
heat of the fever they refused him drink. So one 
Friday, when the people of the house had gone to church, 
and left him alone, he, no longer able to endure the thirst, 
crawled off on hands and feet to the kitchen, where he 
drank off with great avidity a jug of cold water. He could 
reach his room again, but having done so he fell into a deep 
sleep, and on waking the fever had left him. 

The maintenance his father was able to afford him was 
not sufficient to cover the expenses of his board and lodging 
as well as of his schooling, either at Magdeburg or after- 
wards at Eisenach. He was obliged to help himself after 
the manner of poor scholars, who, as he tells us, went 
about from door to door collecting small gifts or doles by 
singing hymns. ' I myself,' he says, ' was one of those 
young colts, particularly at Eisenach, my beloved town.' 
He would also ramble about the neighbourhood with his 



CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 15 

school- fellows ; and often, from the pulpit or the lecturer's 
chair, would he tell little anecdotes about those days. The 
boys used to sing quartettes at Christmas -time in the 
villages, carols on the birth of the Holy Child at Bethlehem.. 
Once, as they were singing before the door of a solitary 
farmhouse, the farmer came out and called to them roughly, 
' Where are you, young rascals ? ' He had two large sausages 
in his hand for them, but they ran away terrified, till he 
shouted after them to come back and fetch the sausages. 
So intimidated, says Luther, had he become by the terrors 
of school discipline. His object, however, in relating this 
incident was to show his hearers how the heart of man too 
often construes manifestations of God's goodness and mercy 
into messages of fear, and how men should pray to God 
perseveringly, and without timidity or shamefacedness. In 
those days it was not rare to find even scholars of the 
better classes, such as the son of a magistrate at Mansfeld, 
and those who, for the sake of a better education, were sent 
to distant schools, seeking to add to their means in the 
manner we have mentioned. 

After this, his father sent him. to Eisenach, bearing in 
mind the numerous relatives who lived in the town and sur- 
rounding country, and who might be of service to him. But 
of these no mention has reached us, except of one, named 
Konrad, who was sacristan in the church of St. Nicholas. 
The others, no doubt, were not in a position to give him any 
material assistance. 

About this time his singing brought him under the 
notice of one Fran Cotta, who with genuine affection took 
up the promising boy, and whose memory, in connection 
with the great Beformer, still lives in the hearts of the 
German people. Her husband, Konrad or Kunz, was one 
of the most influential citizens of the town, and sprang 
from a noble Italian family who had acquired wealth by 
commerce. Ursula Cotta, as her name was, belonged to the 
Eisenach family of Schalbe. She died in 1511. Mathesius 



i6 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 

tells us how the boy won her heart by his singing and 
his earnestness in prayer, and she welcomed him to her 
own table. Luther met with similar acts of kindness from 
a brother or other relative of hers, and also from an 
institution belonging to Franciscan friars at Eisenach, 
which was indebted to the Schalbe family for several rich 
endowments, and was named, in consequence, the Schalbe 
College. At Frau Cotta's, Luther was first introduced to 
the life in a patrician's house, and learned to move in that 
society. 

At Eisenach he remained at school for four years. 
Many years afterwards we find him on terms of friendly 
and grateful intercourse with one Father Wiegand, who 
had been his schoolmaster there. Eatzeberger, speaking 
of the then schoolmaster at Eisenach, mentions a ' distin- 
guished poet and man of learning, John Trebonius,' who, 
as he tells us, every morning, on entering the schoolroom, 
would take off his biretta, because God might have chosen 
many a one of the lads present to be a future mayor, or 
chancellor, or learned doctor ; a thought which, as he adds, 
was amply realised afterwards in the person of Doctor 
Luther. The relations of these two at the school, which 
contained several classes, must be a matter of conjecture. 
But the system of teaching pursued there was praised 
afterwards by Luther himself to Melancthon. The 
former acquired there that thorough knowledge of Latin 
which was then the chief preparation for University 
study. He learned to write it, not only in prose, but 
also in verse, which leads us to suppose that the school at 
Eisenach took a part in the Humanistic movement already 
mentioned. Happily, his active mind and quick under- 
standing had already begun to develop ; not only did he 
make up for lost ground, but he even outstripped- those of 
his own age. 

As we see him growing up to manhood, the future 
hero of the faith, the teacher, and the warrior, the most 



CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 17 

important question for us is the course which his religious 
development took from childhood. 

He who, in after years, waged such a tremendous war- 
fare with the Church of his time, always gratefully acknow- 
ledged, and in his own teaching and conduct kept steadily 
in view, how, within herself, and underneath all the corrup- 
tions he denounced, she still preserved the groundwork of 
a Christian life, the charter of salvation, the fundamental 
truths of Christianity, and the means of redemption and 
blessing, vouchsafed by the grace of God. Especially did 
he acknowledge all that he had himself received from the 
Church since childhood. In that House, he says on one 
occasion, he was baptised, and catechised in the Christian 
truth, and for that reason he would always honour it as the 
House of his Father. The Church would at any rate take 
care that children, at home and at school, should learn by 
heart the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten 
Commandments ; that they should pray, and sing psalms 
and Christian hymns. Printed books, containing them, 
were already in existence. Among the old Christian hymns 
in the German language, of which a surprisingly rich col- 
lection has been formed, a certain number, at least, were in 
common use in the churches, especially for festivals. ' Fine 
songs ' Luther called them, and he took care that they 
should live on in the Evangelical communities. Those old 
verses form in part the foundation of the hymns which we 
owe to his own poetical genius. Thus for Christmas we 
still have the carol of those times, Ein Kindelein so lobelich ; 
and the first verse of Luther's Whitsun hymn, Nun bitten 
tcir den Heiligen Geist, is taken, he tells us, from one of 
those old-fashioned melodies. Of the portions of Scripture 
read in church, the Gospels and Epistles were given in the 
mother-tongue. Sermons, also, had long been preached in 
German, and there were printed collections of them for the 
use of the clergy. 

The places where Luther grew up were certainly better 

c 



18 LUTHER S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 

off in this respect than many others. For, in the main, 
very much was still wanting to realise what had been re- 
commended and striven for by pious Churchmen, and writers 
and religious fraternities, or even enjoined by the Church 
herself. The Reformers had, indeed, a heavy and an irre- 
futable indictment to bring against the Catholic Church 
system of their time. The grossest ignorance and short- 
comings were exposed by the Visitations which they under- 
took, and from these we may fairly judge of the actual state 
of things existing for many years before. It appeared, that 
even where these portions of the catechism were taught by 
parents and schoolmasters, they never formed the subject of 
clerical instruction to the young. It was precisely one of 
the charges brought against the enemies of the Reformation, 
that, notwithstanding the injunctions of their Church, they 
habitually neglected this instruction, and preferred teaching 
the children such things as carrying banners in processions 
and holy tapers. Priests were found, in the course of these 
visitations, who had scarcely any knowledge of the chief 
articles of the faith. His own personal experience of this 
neglect, when young, is not noticed by Luther in his later 
complaints on the subject. 

But the main fault and failing which he recognised in 
after life, and which, as he tells us, was a source of inward 
suffering to him from childhood, was the distorted view, 
held up to him at school and from the pulpit, of the con- 
ditions of Christian salvation, and, consequently, of his 
own proper religious attitude and demeanour. 

Luther himself, as we learn from him in later life, would 
have Christian children brought up in the happy assurance 
that God is a loving Father, Christ a faithful Saviour, and 
that it is their privilege and duty to approach their Father 
with frank and childlike confidence, and, if aroused to a 
consciousness of sin or wrong, to entreat at once His for- 
giveness. Such however, he tells us, was not what he was 
taught. On the contrary, .he was instructed, and trained up 



CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS.' 19 

from childhood in that narrowing conception of Christianity, 
and that outward form of religiousness, against which, more 
than anything, he bore witness as a Eeformer. 

God was pictured to him as a Being^ unapproachably 
sublime, and of awful holiness ; Christ, the Saviour, 
Mediator, and Advocate, whose revelation can only bring 
judgment to those who reject salvation, as the threatening 
Judge, against whose wrath, as against that of God, man 
sought for intercession and mediation from the Virgin and 
the other saints. This latter worship, towards the close of 
the middle ages, had increased in importance and extent. 
Peculiar honour was paid to particular saints, in particular 
places, and for the furtherance of particular interests. The 
warlike St. George was the special saint of the town and 
county of Mansfeld : his effigy still surmounts the entrance 
to the old school-house. Among the miners the worship of 
St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin, soon became popular 
towards the end of the century, and the mining town of 
Annaberg, built in 1496, was named after her. Luther 
records how the ' great stir ' was first made about her, 
when he was a boy of fifteen, and how he was then anxious 
to place himself under her protection. There is no lack of 
religious writings of that time, which, with the view of 
preserving the Catholic faith, warn men earnestly against 
the danger of overvaluing the saints, and of placing their 
hopes more in them than in God; but we see from those 
very warnings how necessary they were, and later history 
shows us how little fruit they bore. As for Luther, certain 
beautiful features in the lives and legends of the saints 
exercised over him a poAver of attraction which he never 
afterwards renounced ; and of the Virgin he always spoke 
with tender reverence, only regretting that men wished to 
make an idol of her. But of his early religious belief, he 
says that Christ appeared to him as seated on a rainbow, 
like a stern Judge ; from Christ men turned to the saints, 
to be their patrons, and called on the Virgin to bare her 

c2 



20 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 

breasts to her Son, and dispose him thereby to mercy. An 
example of what deceptions were sometimes practised in 
such worship came to the notice of the Elector John 
Frederick, the friend of Luther, and probably originated hi 
a convent at Eisenach. It was a figure, carved in wood, of 
the Virgin with the infant Saviour in her arms, which was 
furnished with a secret contrivance by means of which the 
Child, when the people prayed to him, first turned away 
to His mother, and only when they had invoked her as 
intercessor, bowed towards them with His little arms 
outstretched. 

On the other hand, the sinner who was troubled with 
cares about his soul and thoughts of Divine judgment, found 
himself directed to the performance of particular acts of 
penance and pious exercises, as the means to appease a 
righteous God. He received judgment and commands 
through the Church at the confessional. The Reformers 
themselves, and Luther especially, fully recognised the 
value of being able to pour out the inner temptations of 
the heart to some Christian father-confessor, or even to 
some other brother in the faith, and to obtain from his lips 
that comfort of forgiveness which God, in His love and 
mercy, bestows freely on the faithful. But nothing of 
this kind, they said, was to be found in the confessional. 
The conscience was tormented with the enumeration of single 
sins, and burdened with all sorts of penitential formalities ; 
and it was just with a view that everyone should be drawn 
to this discipline of the Church, should use it regularly, and 
should seek for no other way to make his peace with God, 
that the educational activity of the Church, both with young 
and old, was especially directed. 

Luther, in after life, as we have already remarked, 
always recognised and found comfort in the fact that, even 
under such conditions as the above, enough of the simple 
message of salvation in the Bible could penetrate the 
heart, and awaken a faith which, in spite of all artificial 



CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 21 

restraints and perplexing dogmas, should throw itself, with 
inward longing and childlike trust, into the arms of God's 
mercy, and so enjoy true forgiveness. He received, as we 
shall see, some salutary directions for so doing from later 
friends of his, who belonged to the Romish Church, nor was 
that character of ecclesiastical religiousness, so to speak, 
stamped everywhere, or to the same degree, on Christian 
life in Germany during his youth. Nevertheless, his whole 
inner being, from boyhood, was dominated by its influence ; 
he, at all events, had never been taught to appreciate the 
Gospel as a child. Looking back in later years on his 
monastic days, and the whole of his previous life, he 
declared that he never could feel assured that his baptism 
in Christ was sufficient for his salvation, and that he was 
sorely troubled with doubt whether any piety of his own would 
be able to secure for him God's mercy. Thoughts of this 
kind he said induced him to become a monk. 

Men have never been wanting, either before or since 
the time of Luther's youth, to denounce the abuses and 
corruptions of the Church, and particularly of the clergy. 
Language of this sort had long found its way to the 
popular ear, and had proceeded also from the people them- 
selves. Complaints were made of the tyranny of the Papal 
hierarchy, and of their encroachments on social and civil life, 
as well as of the worldliness and gross immorality of the 
priests and monks. The Papacy had reached its lowest 
depth of moral degradation under Pope Alexander VI. We 
hear nothing, however, of the impressions produced on 
Luther, in this respect, in the circumstances of his early 
life. The news of such scandals as were then enacted at 
Borne, shamelessly and in open day, very likely took a long 
while to reach Luther and those about him. With regard 
to the carnal offences of the clergy, against which, to the 
honour of Germany be it said, the German conscience 
especially revolted, he made afterwards the noteworthy re- 
mark, that although during his boyhood the priests allowed 



22 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 

themselves mistresses, they never incurred the suspicion 
of anything like unbridled sensuality or adulterous conduct. 
Examples of such kind date only from a later period. 

The loyalty with which Mansfeld, his home, adhered to 
the ancient Church, is shown by several foundations of that 
time, all of which have reference to altars and the celebra- 
tion of mass. The overseer of the mines, Eeinicke, the 
friend of Luther's family, is among the founders : he left 
provision for keeping up services in honour of the Virgin and 
St. George. 

A peculiarly reverential demeanour, in regard to religion 
and the Church, is observable in Luther's father, and one 
which was common no doubt among his honest, simple, pious 
fellow townsfolk. His conduct was consistently God-fear- 
ing. In his house it was afterwards told how he would often 
pray at the bedside of his little Martin, — how, as the friend 
of godliness and learning, he had enjoyed the friendship of 
priests and school-teachers. Words of pious reflection from 
his lips remained stamped on Luther's memory from his boy- 
hood. Thus Luther tells us, in a sermon preached towards 
the close of his life, how he had often heard his dear father 
say, that, as his own parents had told him, the earth con- 
tains, many more who require to be fed than there are 
sheaves, even if collected from all the fields in the world ; 
and yet how wondrously does God know how to preserve man- 
kind ! In common with his fellow-townsmen, he followed the 
precepts and commands of his Church. When, in the year 
in which he sent his son to Magdeburg, two new altars in 
the church at Mansfeld were consecrated to a number of 
saints, and sixty days' indulgence was granted to anyone 
who heard mass at them, Hans Luther, with Eeinicke and 
other fellow-magistrates, was among the first to make use 
of the invitation. The enemies of the Eeformer, while 
fain to trace his origin to a heretic Bohemian, had not a 
shadow of a reason for suspecting his real father of any 
leanings to heresy. Nor do we hear a word in later years 



CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 23 

from the Keformer, after his father had separated with him 
from the Catholic Church, to show a trace of any hostile or 
critical remark against that Church, remembered from the 
lips of his father during childhood. Quietly but firmly the 
latter asserted his own judgment, and framed his will ac- 
cordingly. He was firm, hi particular, in the consciousness 
of his paternal rights and duties, even against the pre- 
tensions of the clergy. Thus, as his son Martin tells 
us, when he lay once on the point of death, and the 
priest admonished him to leave something to the clergy, he 
replied in the simplicity of his heart, ' I have many children : 
I will leave it them, for they want it more.' We shall see 
how unyieldingly, when his son entered a convent, he in- 
sisted, as against all the value and usefulness of monasticism, 
on the paramount obligation of God's command, that 
children should obey their parents. Luther also tells us 
how his father once praised in high terms the will left by a 
Count of Mansfeld, who without leaving any property to 
the Church, was content to depart from this world trusting 
solely to the bitter sufferings and death of Christ, and com- 
mending his soul to Him. Luther himself, when a young 
student, would have considered, as he tells us, a bequest to 
churches or convents a proper will to make. His father 
afterwards accepted his son's doctrine of salvation without 
hesitation, and with the full conviction that it was right. 
But remarks of his such as we have quoted, were consistent 
with a perfectly blameless demeanour in regard to the forms 
of conduct and belief as prescribed by the Church, with 
an avoidance of criticism and argument on ecclesiastical 
matters, which he knew were not his vocation, and above 
all with a complete abstention from such talk in the 
presence of his children. As to what concerns further the 
positive religious influence which he exercised over his 
children, any such impressions as he might have given by 
what he said of the Count of Mansfeld, were fully counter- 



24 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 

balanced by the severity and firmness of his paternal 
discipline. 

Concurrent with the doctrine of salvation through the 
intercession of the saints and the Church, and one's own 
good works, which Luther had been taught from his youth, 
were the dark popular ideas of the power of the devil — ideas, 
which, though not actually invented, were at least patronised 
by the Church, and which not only threaten the souls of 
men, but cast a baneful spell over all their natural life. 
Luther, as is well known, has frequently expressed his own 
opinions about the devil, in connection with the enchant- 
ments supposed to be practised by the Evil One on mankind. 
and, more especially, on the subject of witchcraft. Of oup 
thing he was certain, that in God's hand we are safe from 
the Evil One, and can triumph over him. But even he 
believed the devil's work was manifested in sudden accidents 
and striking phenomena of Nature, in storms, conflagra- 
tions, and the like. As to the tales of sorcery and magic, 
which were told and believed in by the people, some he 
declared to be incredible, others he ascribed to the hallucina- 
tions effected by the devil. But that witches had power to 
do one bodily harm, that they plagued children in particular, 
and that their spells could affect the soul, he never seriously 
doubted. 

From his earliest childhood, and especially at home, 
ideas of that kind had been instilled into Luther, and 
accordingly they ministered strong food to his imagination. 
They had just then spread to a remarkable extent among 
the Germans, and had developed in remarkable ways. 
They had affected the administration of ecclesiastical and 
civil law, they had given rise to the Inquisition and the 
most barbarous cruelties in the punishment of those who 
were pretended to be in league with the devil, and they had 
gradually multiplied then baneful effects. The year after 
Luther's birth, appeared the remarkable Papal bull which 



CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 25 

sanctioned the trial of witches. When a boy, Luther heard 
a great deal about witches, though later in life he thought 
there was no longer so much talk about them, and he would 
not scruple to tell stories of how they harmed men and 
cattle, and brought down storms and hail. Nay, of his own 
mother he believed that she had suffered much from the 
witcheries of a female neighbour, who, as he said, ' plagued 
her children till they nearly screamed themselves to death.' 
Delusions such as these are certainly dark shadows in the 
picture of Luther's youth, and are important towards under- 
standing his inner life as a man. 

But while admitting the existence of these superstitious 
and pseudo-religious notions, we must not imagine that they 
composed the whole portraiture of Luther's early life. He 
was, as Mathesius describes him, a merry, jovial young fellow. 
In his later reflections on himself and his youthful days, 
the very war he was waging against the false teachings of 
the Church, from which he himself had suffered, made him 
dwell, as was natural, on this side of his early life. But 
amidst all those trials and depressing influences, the fresh 
and elastic vigour of his nature stood the strain— a vigour 
innate and inherited, and which afterwards shone forth in 
a new and brighter light, under a new aspect of religious 
life. His childlike joy in Nature around him, which after- 
wards distinguished so remarkably the theologian and 
champion of the faith, must be referred back to his original 
bent of mind and his life, when a boy, amid Nature's 
surroundings. 

How much he lived, from childhood, with the peasantry, 
is shown by the natural ease with which he spoke in the 
popular dialect, even when he was learning Latin and 
enjoying a higher culture, and by the frequency with which 
the native roughnesses of that dialect broke out in his 
learned discourses or sermons. In no other theologian, nay, 
in no other known German writer of his century, do we 



26 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND .YOUTH. 

meet with so many popular proverbs as in Luther, to whom 
they came naturally in his conversations and letters. 
German legends also, and popular tales, such as the history 
of Dietrich von Bern and other heroes, or of Eulenspiegel 
or Markolf, would hardly have been remembered so accu- 
rately by him in later years, if he had not familiarised 
himself with them in childhood. He would at times inveigh 
against the worthless, and even shameless tales and 
'gossip,' as he called it, which such books contained, and 
especially against the priests who used to spice their sermons 
with such stories ; but that he also recognised their value 
we know from his allusion to ' some people, who had 
written songs about Dietrich and other giants, and in so 
doing had expounded much greater subjects in a short and 
simple manner.' The pleasure with which he himself may 
have read or listened to them, can be gathered from his 
remark that ■' when a story of Dietrich von Bern is told, one 
is bound to remember it afterwards, even though one has 
only heard it once.' 

He maintained through life a faithful devotion to the 
places where he had grown up. Eisenach remained, as we 
have already seen, his beloved town. Mansfeld was par- 
ticularly dear to him as his home, and the whole county 
as his ' fatherland ; ' he calls it with pride a ' noble and 
famous county.' The miners also, who were his fellow- 
countrymen and his dear father's work-mates, he loved all 
his life long. But a wider horizon was not opened to him 
among the people of the little town of Mansfeld, or where 
he afterwards went to school. To this fact, and to his quiet 
life as a monk, we must ascribe the peculiar feature of his 
later activity, namely, that while prosecuting with far-seeing 
eye and a w T arm heart the highest and most extensive tasks 
for his Church and for the German people in general; 
still, at the beginning of his work and campaign, he under- 
stood but little of the great world outside, and of politics, 



CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 27 

or even of the general state of Germany ; nay, he shows at 
times a touchingiy childlike simplicity in these matters. 

The last few years of his school-life enabled him to make 
brave progress on the road to intellectual culture, which 
his father wished him to pursue. Thus equipped, he was 
prepared at the age of eighteen, to remove, in the summer 
of 1501 to the university at Erfurt. 



28 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 



CHAPTEK III. 

STUDENT-DAYS AT ERFURT AND ENTRY INTO THE CONTENT. 
1501-1505. 

Among the German universities, that of Erfurt, which 
could count already a hundred years of prosperous exist- 
ence, occupied at this time a brilliant position. So high, 
Luther tells us, was its standing and reputation, that all its 
sister institutions were regarded as mere pigmies by its 
side. His parents could now afford to give him the neces- 
sary means for studying at such a place. ' My dear father,' 
he says, ' maintained me there with loyal affection, and by 
his labour and the sweat of his brow enabled me to go there.' 
He had now begun to feel a burning thirst for learning, and 
here, at the ' fountain of all knowledge,' to use Melanc- 
thon's words, he hoped to be able to quench it. 

He began with a complete course of philosophy, as that 
science was then understood. It dealt, in the first place, 
with the laws and forms of thought and knowledge, with 
language, in which Latin formed the basis, or with grammar 
and rhetoric, as also with the highest problems and most 
abstruse questions of physics, and comprised even a general 
knowledge of natural science and astronomy. A complete 
study of all these subjects was not merely requisite for 
learned theologians, but frequently served as an introduc- 
tion to that of law, and even of medicine. 

When Luther first came from Eisenach to Erfurt, there 
was nothing yet about him that attracted the attention of 
others so far as to call forth any contemporary account of 
him. Enough, however, is known of the most eminent 



STUDENT-DAYS AT ERFURT 29 

teachers there, at whose feet he sate, and also of the general 
kind of intellectual food which they administered. He gained 
entrance into a circle of older and younger men than him- 
self, teachers and fellow- students, who in later years, either 
as friends or opponents, were able to bear witness, favour- 
ably or the reverse, as to his life and work at Erfurt. 

The leading professor of philosophy at Erfurt was then 
Jodocus Trutvetter, who, three years after Luther's arrival, 
became also doctor of theology and lecturer of the theolo- 
gical faculty. Next to him, in this department, ranked 
Bartholomew Arnoldi of Usingen. It was to these two 
men above others, and particularly to the former, that 
Luther looked for his instruction. 

The philosophy which was then in vogue at Erfurt, 
and which found its most vigorous champion in Trutvetter, 
was that of the Scholasticism of later clays. It is common 
to associate with the idea of Scholasticism, or the theolo- 
gical and philosophical School-science of the middle ages, 
a system of thought and instruction, embracing, indeed, 
the highest questions of knowledge and existence, but at 
the same time not venturing to strike into any independent 
paths, or to deviate an inch from tradition, but submitting 
rather, in everything connected, or supposed to be con- 
nected, with religious belief, to the dogmas and decrees of 
the Church and the authority of the early Fathers, and 
wasting the understanding and intellect in dry formalism or 
subtle but barren controversies. This conception fails to 
appreciate the vast labour of thought bestowed by leading 
minds on the attempt to unravel the mass of ecclesiastical 
teaching which had twined round the innermost lives of 
themselves and their fellow- Christians, and at the same time 
to follow those general questions under the guidance of the 
old philosophers, especially Aristotle, of whom they knew 
but little. But it is applicable, at any rate, to the Scholas- 
ticism of later days. The confidence with which its older 
exponents had thought to explain and establish orthodoxy 



3 o LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 

by means of their favourite science, was gone ; all the 
more, therefore, should that science keep silence in face of 
the commands of the Church. Men, moreover, had grown 
tired of the old questions of philosophy about the reality 
and real existence of Universals. It had been formerly a 
question of dispute whether our general ideas had a real 
existence, or whether they were nothing more than words 
or names, mere abstractions, comprehending the individual, 
which alone was supposed to possess Keality. At that time 
the latter doctrine, that of Nominalism, as it was called, 
prevailed. At length, these new or ' modern ' philosophers 
abandoned the question of Realism, and the relation of 
thought to Eeality, in favour of a system of pure logic or 
dialectics, dealing with the mere forms and expressions 
of thought, the formal analysis of ideas and words, the 
mutual relation of propositions and conclusions — in short, 
all that constitutes what we call formal logic, in its widest 
acceptation. At this point, the far-famed scholastic 
intellect, with its subtleties, its fine distinctions, its nice 
questions, its sophistical conclusions, reached its zenith. 

To this logic Trutvetter also devoted himself, and in it 
he taught his pupils. He had just then published a series 
of treatises on the subject. To him this study was real 
earnest. Compared with others, he has shown in these 
excursions a cautious and discreet moderation, and no 
inclination for the quarrels and verbal combats often dear 
to logicians. The same can be said of his colleague 
Usingen. Trutvetter has shown also that he enjoyed and 
was widely read in earlier and modern, especially, of course, 
in Scholastic literature, including the works not only of the 
most important, but also of very obscure authors. We can 
imagine what delight he took in all this when in his 
professor's chair, and how much he expected from his 
pupils. 

At Erfurt meanwhile, and by this same philosophical 
faculty, a fresh and vigorous impulse was being given to 



STUDENT-DAYS AT ERFURT. 31 

that study of classical antiquity, which gave birth to a new 
learning, and ushered in a new era of intellectual culture 
in Germany. We have already had occasion to refer to the 
movement and influence of Humanism at the schools which 
Luther attended at Magdeburg and Eisenach. He now 
found himself at one of the chief nurseries of these ' arts 
and letters ' in Germany, nay, at the very place where their 
richest blossoms were unfolded. Erfurt could boast of 
having issued the first Greek book printed in Germany in 
Greek type, namely, a grammar, printed in Luther's first 
year at the University. It was the Greek and Latin poets, 
in particular, whose writings stirred the enthusiasm and 
emulation of the students. For refined expression and 
learned intercourse, the fluent and elegant Latin language 
was studied, as given in the works of classical writers. 
But far more important still was the free movement of 
thought, and the new world of ideas thus opened up. 

In proportion as these young disciples of antiquity 
learned to despise the barbarous Latin and insipidity of the 
monkish and scholastic education of the day, they began to 
revolt against Scholasticism, against the dogmas of faith 
propounded by the Church, and even against the religious 
opinions of Christendom in general. History shows us the 
different paths taken, in this respect, by the Humanists; 
and we shall come across them, in another way, during the 
career of the Reformer, as having an important influence 
on the course of the Reformation. With many, an honest 
striving after religion and morality allied itself with the 
impulse for independent intellectual culture, and tried to 
utilise it for improving the condition of the Church. When 
the struggle of the Reformation began, some followed 
Luther and the other religious teachers on his side, some, 
shrinking back from his trenchant conclusions, and, above 
all, concerned for then own stock-in-trade of learning, 
counselled others to practise prudence and moderation, and 
themselves retired to the service of their muses. Others 



32 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH- 

again, broke away altogether from the Christian faith and 
the principles of Christian morality. They took delight in 
a new life of Heathenism, devoted sometimes to sensual 
pleasures and gross immoralities, sometimes to the indul- 
gence of refined tastes and the enjoyment of art. These 
latter never raised a weapon against the Church, but for 
the most part accommodated themselves to her forms. In 
her teachings, her ordinances, and her discipline, they saw 
something indispensable to the multitude, as whose conscious 
superiors they behaved. Indeed, they themselves wielded 
this government in the Church, and comfortably enjoyed 
their authority and its fruits. In Italy, at Rome, and on 
the Papal chair these despotic pretensions were then 
asserted without shame or reserve. In Germany, on the 
other hand, the leading champions of the new learning, 
even when in open arms against the barbarism of the 
monks and clergy, sought, for themselves and their dis- 
ciples, to remain faithful on the ground of their Mother 
Church. At Erfurt, in particular, the relations between 
them and the representatives of Scholasticism were peace- 
ful, unconstrained, and friendly. The dry writings of a 
Trutvetter they prefaced with panegyrics in Latin verse, 
and the Trutvetter would try to imitate their purer 
style. 

Some talented young students of the classics at Erfurt 
formed themselves into a small coterie of their own. They 
enjoyed the cheerful pleasures of youthful society, nor were 
poetry and wine wanting, but the rules of decorum and 
good manners were not overlooked. Several men, whom 
we shall come across afterwards in the history of Luther, 
belonged to this circle ;— for instance, John Jager, known 
as Crotus Eubianus, the friend of Ulrich Hutten, and 
George Spalatin (properly Burkhard), the trusted fellow- 
labourer of the Reformer. Both had already been three 
years at the university when Luther entered it. Three 
years after his arrival, came Eoban Hess, the most brilliant, 



STUDENT-DAYS AT ERFURT. 33 

talented, and amiable of the young Humanists and poets of 
Germany. 

Such was the learned company to which Luther was 
introduced in the philosophical faculty at Erfurt. So far, 
different avenues of intellectual culture were opened to him. 
He threw himself into the study of that philosophy in all 
its bearings, and, not content with exploring the tangled 
and thorny paths of logic, took counsel how to enjoy, as far 
as possible, the fruits of the newly-revived knowledge of 
antiquity. 

As regards the latter, he carried the study of Ovid, 
Yirgil, and Cicero, in particular, farther than was customary 
with the professed students of Humanism, and the same 
with the poetical works of more modern Latin writers. 
But his chief aim was not so much to master the mere 
language of the classical authors, or to mould himself 
according to their form, as to cull from their pages rich 
apophthegms of human wisdom, and pictures of human 
life and of the history of peoples. He learned to express 
pregnant and powerful thoughts clearly and vigorously in 
learned Latin, but he was himself well aware how much 
his language was wanting in the elegance, refinement, and 
charm of the new school ; indeed, this elegance he never 
attempted to attain. 

With the members of this circle of young Humanists, 
Luther was on terms of personal friendship. Crotus was 
able to remind him in after life how, in close intimacy, they 
had studied the fine arts together at the university. But 
there is no mention of him in the numerous letters and 
poems left to posterity by the aspiring Humanists at Erfurt. 
He had made himself, Crotus adds, a name among his com- 
panions as the ' learned philosopher ' and the ' musician,' 
but he never belonged to the ' poets,' which was the 
favourite title of the young Humanists. Many, including 
even Melancthon, have lamented that he was not more 
deeply imbued with the spirit of those ' noble arts and letters/ 



34 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 

which educate the mind, and would have tended to soften 
his rugged nature and manner. But they would have been 
of little value to him for the quick decision and energy 
required for the war he had afterwards to wage. Those 
intellectual treasures and enjoyments kept aloof not only 
from such contests, but also from sharp and searching 
investigations of the highest questions of religion and 
morality, and from the inward struggle, so often painful, 
which they bring. As regards the merits of Humanism, 
which Luther again, as a Eeformer, eagerly acknowledged, 
we must not forget how selfishly it withdrew itself from 
contact and communion with German popular life, nor how 
it helped to create an exclusive aristocracy of intellect, and 
allowed the noblest talents to become as clumsy in their 
own natural mother-tongue, as they were clever in the 
handling of foreign, acquired forms of art. Luther, in not 
yielding further to those influences, remained a German. 

Philosophy, then, engrossed him, and allowed him but 
little time for other things. And in studying this, he 
sought to grapple with the highest problems of the human 
understanding. These problems occupied also the labours 
of the later Scholastics, however faulty were the forms in 
which they clothed their ideas. At the same time, these 
very forms attracted him, from the scope they gave to the 
exercise of his natural acuteness and understanding. Dis- 
putation was his great delight ; and argumentative contests 
were then in fashion at the universities. But in after years, 
as soon as the contents of the Bible were opened to his 
inner understanding, and he recognised in its pages the 
object of real theological knowledge, he regretted the time 
and labour which he had wasted on those studies, and even 
spoke of them with disgust. 

Crotus has already told us of the sociable life that 
Luther led with' his friends. The love for music, which he 
had shown in school-days, he continued to keep up, and 
indulged in it merrily with his fellow-students. He had a 



STUDENT-DAYS AT ERFURT. 35 

high-pitched voice, not strong, but audible at a distance. 
Besides singing, he learned also to play the lute, and this 
without a master, and he employed his time in this way 
when laid up once by an accident to his leg. 

Such rapid progress did he make in his philosophical 
studies, that in his third term he was able to attain his 
baccalaureate, the first academical degree of the theological 
faculty. This degree, according to the general custom of 
the universities, preceded that of Master, corresponding to 
the present Doctor, of philosophy. The examination for it, 
which Luther passed on Michaelmas day 1502, professed 
to include the most important subjects in the province of 
philosophy. But it could not have been very severe. The 
chief work came when he took his next degree as Master, 
which was at the beginning of 1505. He then experienced 
what afterwards, speaking of Erfurt's former glory, he thus 
describes : ' What a moment of majesty and splendour was 
that, when one took the degree of Master, and torches 
were carried before, and honour was paid one. I consider 
that no temporal or worldly joy can equal it.' Melancthon 
tells us, on the authority of several of Luther's fellow- 
students, that his talent was then the wonder of the whole 
university. 

In accordance with the wish of his father and the advice 
of his relations, he was now to fit himself for a lawyer. 
In this profession, they thought, he would be able to turn 
his talents to the best account, and make a name in the 
world. And in this department also, the university of Erfurt 
could boast of one of the most distinguished men of learn- 
ing of that time, Henning Goede, who was now in the 
prime of his vigour. Luther, accordingly, began to attend 
the lectures on law, and his father allowed him to buy some 
valuable books for that purpose, particularly a ' Corpus 
Juris.' 

Meanwhile, however, in his inner religious life a change 

d2 



36 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 

was being prepared, which proved the turning-point of his 
career. 

Luther himself, as we have seen, frequently pointed out 
in after life the influences which, even from childhood, 
under the discipline of home, the experiences of school, and 
the teaching of the Church, combined to bring about this 
result. He could never shake off for any length of time, 
even when in the midst of learned study or the enjoyment 
of student life, the consciousness that he must be pious and 
satisfy all the strict commands of God, that he must make 
good all the shortcomings of his life, and reconcile himself 
with Heaven, and that an angry Judge was throned above 
who threatened him with damnation. Inner voices of this 
kind, in a man of sensitive and tender conscience, were 
bound to assert themselves the more loudly and earnestly, 
as,- in his progress from youth to manhood, he realised 
more fully his personal responsibility to God, and also his 
personal independence. To religious observances, in which 
he had been trained from childhood, Luther, as a student, 
remained faithful. Eegularly he began his day with prayer, 
and as regularly attended mass. But of any new or com- 
forting means of access to God and salvation, he heard 
nothing, even here. In the town of Erfurt there was an 
earnest and powerful preacher, named Sebastian Weinmann, 
who denounced in incisive language the prevalent vices of 
the day, and exposed the corruption of ecclesiastical life, 
and whom the students thronged to hear. But even he had 
nothing to offer to satisfy Luther's inward cravings of the 
soul. It was an episode in his life when he once found a 
Latin Bible in the library of the university. Though then 
nearly twenty years of age, he had never yet seen a Bible. 
Now for the first time he saw how much more it contained 
than was ever read out and explained in the churches. 
With delight he perused the story of Samuel and his mother, 
on the first pages that met his e}^e ; though, as yet, he 
could make nothing more out of the Sacred Book. It was 



STUDENT-DAYS AT ERFURT. 37 

not on account of any particular offences, such as youthful 
excesses, that Luther feared the wrath of God. Staunch 
Catholics at Erfurt, including even later avowed enemies of 
the Eeformer, who knew him there as a student, have never 
hinted at anything of that sort against him. ' The more 
we wash our hands, the fouler they become,' was a favourite 
saying of Luther's. He referred, no doubt, to the numerous 
faults in thought, word, and deed, which, in spite of human 
carefulness, every day brings, and which, however insignifi- 
cant they might seem to others, his conscience told him 
were sins against God's holy law. Disquieting questions, 
moreover, now arose in his mind, so sorely troubled with 
temptation ; and his subtle and penetrating intellect, so far 
from being able to solve them, only plunged him deeper in 
distress. Was it then really God's own will, he asked 
himself, that he should become actually purged from sin 
and thereby be saved ? Was not the way to hell or the 
way to heaven already fixed for him immutably in God's 
will and decree, by which everything is determined and 
preordained? And did not the very futility of his own 
endeavours hitherto prove that it was the former fate that 
hung over him ? He was in danger of going utterly astray 
in his conception of such a God. Expressions in the 
Bible such as those which speak of serving Him with fear 
became to him intolerable and hateful. He was seized at 
times with fits of despair such as might have tempted him 
to blaspheme God. It was this that he afterwards referred 
to as the greatest temptation he had experienced when 
young. 

His physical condition probably contributed to this 
gloomy frame of mind. Already during his baccalaureate 
we hear of an illness of his, which awakened in him thoughts 
of death. A friend, represented by later tradition as an aged 
priest, said to him on his sick bed, ' Take courage ; God will 
yet make you the means of comfort to many others ; ' and 
these words impressed him strongly even then. An accident 



38 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 

also, which threatened to be fatal, must have tended to alarm 
him. As he was travelling home at Easter, and was within an 
hour's distance of Erfurt, he accidentally injured the main 
artery of his leg with the rapier which, like other students, 
he carried at his side. Whilst a friend who was with him 
had gone for a doctor, and he was left alone, he pressed 
the wound tightly as he lay on his back, but the leg 
continued to swell. In the anguish of death he called upon 
the Virgin to help him. That night his terror was renewed 
when the wound broke open afresh, and again he invoked 
the Mother of God. It was during his convalescence after 
this accident that he resolved upon learning to play the 
lute. 

He was terribly distressed also, a few months after he 
had taken his degree as Master, by the sudden death of one 
of his friends, not further known to us, who was either 
assassinated or snatched away by some other fatality. 

Well might the thought even then have occurred to 
him, while so disturbed in his mind and overpowered by 
feelings of sadness, whether it would not be better to 
seek his cure in the monastic holiness recommended by 
the Church, and to renounce altogether the world and all 
the success he had hitherto aspired to. The young Master 
of Arts, as he tells us himself in later years, was indeed a 
sorrowful man. 

Suddenly and offhand he was hurried into a most 
momentous decision. Towards the end of June 1505. 
when several Church festivals fall together, he paid a visit 
to his home at Mansfeld, in quest, very possibly, of rest 
and comfort to his mind. Eeturning on July 2, the feast 
of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary, he was already near 
Erfurt, when, at the village of Stotternheim a terrific storm 
broke over his head. A fearful flash of lightning darted 
from heaven before his eyes. Trembling with fear, he fell 
to the earth, and exclaimed, ' Help, Anna, beloved Saint ! 
I will be a monk.' A few days after, when quietly settled 



STUDENT-DAYS AT ERFURT. 39 

again at Erfurt, he repented having used these words. But 
he felt that he had taken a vow, and that, on the strength 
of that vow, he had obtained a hearing. The time, he 
knew, was past for doubt or indecision. Nor did he think 
it necessary to get his father's consent ; his own conviction 
and the teaching of the Church told him that no objection 
on the part of his father could release him from his vow. 
Thus he severed himself at once from his former life 
and companions. On July 16 he called his best friends 
together to bid them leave. Once more they tried to 
keep him back ; he answered them, ' To-day you see me, 
and never again.' The next day, that of St. Alexius, they 
accompanied him with tears to the gates of the Augustinian 
convent in the town, which he thought was to receive him 
for ever. 

It is chiefly from what Luther himself has told us that 
we are enabled to picture to ourselves this remarkable occur- 
rence. Kumour, and rumour only, has given the name of 
Alexius to that unknown friend whose death so terrified 
him, and has represented this friend as having been struck 
dead by lightning at his side. 

The Luther of later days declared that his monastic 
vow was a compulsory one, forced from him by terror and 
the fear of death. But, at the same time, he never 
doubted that it was God who urged him. Thus he said 
afterwards, \ I never thought to leave again the convent. 
I was entirely dead to the world, until God thought that 
the time had come/ 



PAET II. 

LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR, UNTIL HIS ENTRY 
ON THE WAR OF REFORMATION— 1505-1517. 



CHAPTEE I. 

AT THE CONVENT AT ERFURT, TILL 1508. 

Luther's resolve to follow a monastic life was arrived at 
suddenly, as we have seen. But he weighed that resolve 
well in his mind, and just as carefully considered the choice 
of the convent which he entered. 

The Augustinian monks, whose society he announced 
his intention to join, belonged at that time to the most 
important monastic order in Germany. So much had 
already been said with justice, in the way of complaint and 
ridicule, of the depravation of monastic life, its idleness, 
hypocrisy, and gross immorality, that many of them fancied 
that the solemn renunciation of marriage and the world's 
goods, and the absolute submission of their wills to the 
commands of their superiors and the regulations of their 
Order, constituted true service to God, and raised them to a 
peculiar position of holiness and merit. Outward disci- 
pline, at all events, was universally insisted on. Among 
the German institutions of this Order, whilst neglect and 
depravity had crept in elsewhere, a large number had, for 
some time past, distinguished themselves by a strict ad- 
herence to their old statutes, originating, it was supposed, 
from their founder St. Augustine, but relating, at the best, 
to mere matters of form. These institutions formed them- 



AT THE CONVENT AT ERFURT. 41 

selves into an association, presided over by a Vicar of the 
Order, as he was called, a Vicar-General for Germany. To 
this association belonged the convent at Erfurt. Its inmates 
were treated with marked favour and respect by the higher 
and educated classes in the town. They were said to be 
active in preaching and in the care of souls, and to culti- 
vate among themselves the study of theology. Arnoldi, 
Luther's teacher, belonged to this convent. As the Order 
possessed no property, but all its members lived on alms, 
the monks went about the town and country to collect gifts 
of money, bread, cheese, and other victuals. 

According to the rules of the Order, applications for 
admission were not granted at once, but time was taken to 
see whether the applicant was in earnest. After that he 
was received as a novice for at least a }^ear of probation. 
Until that year expired he was at liberty to reconsider his 
wish. 

Luther, before taking this final step, thought of his 
parents, with a view to lay before them his resolve. The 
monastic brethren, however, endeavoured to dissuade him, 
by reminding him how one must leave father and mother 
for Christ and His Cross, and how no one who has put his 
hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of 
God. Upon his writing to his father on the subject, the 
latter, strong in the conviction of his paternal rights, flew 
into a passion with his son. ' My father,' says Luther 
later, ' was near going mad about it ; he was ill satisfied, and 
would not allow it. He sent me an answer in writing, 
addressing me in terms that showed his displeasure, and 
renouncing ail further affection.' Soon after he lost two of 
his sons by the plague. This epidemic had likewise broken 
out so violently at Erfurt, that about harvest-time whole 
crowds of students fled with their teachers from the towm, 
and Luther's father received news that his son Martin had 
also fallen a victim. His friends then urged him that, if 
the report proved false, he ought at least to devote his 



42 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 

dearest to God, by letting this son who still remained to 
him, enter the blessed Order of God's servants. At last the 
father let himself be talked over ; but he yielded, as Luther 
informs us, with a sad and reluctant heart. 

The young novice was welcomed among his brethren 
with hymns of joy, and prayers, and other ceremonies. 
He was soon clothed in the garb of his Order. Over a 
white woollen shirt he was made to wear a frock and cowl of 
black cloth, with a black leathern girdle. Whenever he put 
these on or off a Latin prayer was repeated to him aloud, 
that the Lord might put off the old and put on the new man, 
fashioned according to God. Above the cowl he received a 
scapulary, as it was called — in other words, a narrow strip 
of cloth hanging over shoulders, breast, and back, and 
reaching down to his feet. This was meant to signify that 
he took upon him the yoke of Him who said, ' My yoke is 
easy, and my burden is light.' At the same time, he was 
handed over to a superior, appointed to take charge of the 
novices, to introduce them to the practices of monastic 
devotion, to superintend their conduct, and to watch over 
their souls. 

Above all, it was held important that the monks should 
be taught to subdue their own wills. They had to learn to 
endure, without opposition, whatever was imposed upon 
them, and that, indeed, all the more cheerfully, the more 
distasteful it appeared. Any tendency to pride was over- 
come by enjoining immediately the most menial offices on 
the offender. Friends of Luther tell us how, during his first 
period of probation in particular, he had to perform the 
meanest daily labour with brush and broom, and how his 
jealous brethren took particular pleasure in seeing the 
proud young graduate of yesterday trudge through the 
streets, with his beggar's wallet on his back, by the side of 
another monk more accustomed to the work. At first, we 
are told, the university interceded on his behalf as a member 
of their own body, and obtained for him at least some relaxa- 



AT THE' CONVENT AT ERFURT. 43 

tion from his menial duties. From Luther's own lips, in after 
life, we hear not a word of complaint about any special vexa- 
tions and burdens. As far as was possible, he did not allow 
them to daunt him ; nay, he longed for even severer exer- 
cises, to enable him to win the favour of God. Even as a 
.Reformer he remembered with gratitude the ' Pedagogue,' 
or superintendent of his noviciate ; he was a fine old man, 
he tells us, a true Christian under that execrable cowl. 

The novice found each day, as it went by, fully occupied 
with the repetition of set prayers and the performance of 
other acts of devotion. For the day and night together 
there were seven or eight appointed hours of prayer, or 
Horce. During each of these the brethren who were not 
yet priests had to say twenty-five Paternosters with the 
Ave Maria, more ample formulas of prayer being prescribed 
meanwhile to the priests. Luther was also introduced 
already then to certain theological studies, which were 
under the supervision of two learned fathers of the monas- 
tery. But what was of the most importance for him was 
that a Bible —the Latin translation then in general use in 
the Church — was put into his hands. Just about this time, 
a new code of statutes had come in force for these Augus- 
tinian convents, drawn up by Staupitz, the Vicar of the 
Order, which enjoined, as matters of duty, assiduous read- 
ing, devout attention to the Hours, and a zealous study of 
Holy Writ. Teachers were wanting to Luther, and he 
found it very difficult to understand all he read. But with 
genuine appetite he read himself, so to speak, into his 
Bible, and clung to it ever afterwards. 

At the end of his year of probation followed his solemn 
admission to the Order. Faithfully ' unto death ' did Luther 
then promise to live according to the rules of the holy 
father Augustine, and to render obedience to Almighty God, 
to the Virgin Mary, and to the prior of the monastery. 
Before doing so, he put on anew the dress of his Order, 
which had been consecrated with holy water and incense, 



44 



LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 



The prior received his vows and sprinkled holy water upon 
him as he prostrated himself upon the ground in the form 
of a cross. When the ceremony was over, his brethren 
congratulated him on being now like an innocent child 
fresh from the baptism. He was then given a cell of his 
own, with table, bedstead, and chair. It looked out upon 




Fig. 4. — Luther's Cell at Erfurt. 

the cloistered yard of the monastery. It was destroyed by 
a fire on March 7, 1872. 

Luther now, by an inviolable promise, had bound himself 
to that vocation through which he aspired to gain heaven. 
The means whereby he hoped to realise his aspiration 
were abundantly provided for him in his new home. If he 



AT THE CONVENT AT ERFURT. 45 

sought the favour of the Virgin and of other saints who 
should intercede for him before the judgment- seat of God 
and Christ, he found at once in his Order a fervent worship 
of the Virgin in particular, and all possible directions for 
her service, The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, 
which Pius IX., in our own days, first ventured to raise 
into a dogma of the Church, was zealously defended by 
the Augustinians, and firmly maintained by Luther himself, 
even after the beginning of his war of Keformation. John 
Palz, one of his two theological teachers in the convent, 
wrote profusely in honour of this doctrine, and described 
all Christians as its spiritual children. Under its mantle, 
says Luther, he had to creep into the presence of Christ. 
From the multitude of other saints Luther selected a 
number as his constant helpers in need. We notice par- 
ticularly that among these, in addition to St. Anne and 
St. George, was the Apostle Thomas ; from him who him- 
self had once betrayed such cowardice and want of faith 
he might well hope for peculiar sympathy. We have 
already mentioned the set prayers which filled up a great 
portion of the day. He was required above all things to 
learn and repeat them accurately, word by word. After- 
wards, as he tells us, the Horce were read aloud after the 
manner of magpies, jackdaws, or parrots. 

If he wished in penitence to be freed from the sins 
which had tormented him so long, and were a daily burden 
on his conscience, the means of confession provided by the 
Church were always ready for him in the convent. Once a 
week, at the least, every brother had to attend the private 
confessional. All his sins, without exception, had then to 
be revealed, if he wished to obtain for them forgiveness. 
Luther endeavoured to unbosom to his father-confessor all 
he had done from his youth up ; but this was too much 
even for the priest. It was by means of a complete in- 
ward contrition, corresponding to the infinite burden of sin, 
that the person confessing was to make himself worthy of 



46 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 

the forgiveness which the priest then testified to him by 
absolution. According to the prevailing doctrine, however, 
what was wanting to the penitent in completeness of con- 
trition, was supplied by the Sacrament of Absolution. But 
the punishments reserved by God for sinners were not sup- 
posed to be ended by this absolution or forgiveness ; these 
had to be atoned for by peculiar observances, imposed by 
the priest, and by prayer, alms, fasting, and other acts of 
mortification. For him who was not forgiven, remained 
hell ; for him who had not expiated his sins, at least the 
fear and pains of purgatory. Such was and still is the 
teaching of the Catholic Church. 

Thus Luther was now summoned and directed to pursue 
methodically the painful work of self-examination, which 
had oppressed him even before he entered the convent, and 
to use all the means of grace here offered to him. But 
the more he searched into his life and thoughts, the more 
transgressions of God's will he found, and the more 
grievously did they afflict his conscience. It was not, 
indeed, as might have been imagined with a strong young 
man like himself, a question of any sensual appetites, stimu- 
lated all the more by the restraints of the convent. It 
was with the passions of anger, hatred, and envy against 
his brethren and fellow-creatures, that he had to reproach 
himself. Those who disliked him accused him in particular 
of self-conceit, and of letting his temper break out too 
easily. Faults of that description, in thought, word, or 
deed, were to his own conscience as deadly sins, though to 
the priest who listened to him at confession, they seemed 
too trifling to call for enumeration. To these were added 
a number of smaller offences against the ordinances of the 
Church and the convent, with reference to outward obser- 
vances and forms of worship, prayers, and so on, all of 
which, insignificant as they must seem to us, the Church 
was accustomed to treat as grievous sins. Finally, there 
arose in his mind a constant restlessness, which made him 



AT THE CONVENT AT ERFURT. 47 

look for sins where none in reality existed. What he had 
said once before about washing one's hands, that it only 
made them become fouler, he had now to experience for 
himself. His contrition made him feel pain and fear in 
abundance, but not so as to enable him to say to himself 
that it purged the evil in the sight of God. Absolution 
was pronounced over him again and again, but who ever 
gave him any assurance that he had fulfilled its conditions, 
and therefore could really confide in its efficacy ? As for 
acts of penance, he willingly performed them, and, indeed, 
did far more in the way of prayer, fasting, and vigil than 
either the rules of the convent demanded or his father- 
confessor enjoined. His body, from his hardy training as 
a child, was well prepared for such austerities, but in spite 
of that, he had for a long while to suffer from their results. 
Luther, in later years, could well bear witness of himself 
that he had caused his own body far more pain and torture 
with those practices of penance than all his enemies and 
persecutors had caused to theirs. 

What leisure remained, after his other monastic duties 
were over, he devoted most industriously to the study of 
theology. He read, in particular, the writings of the later 
Scholastic theologians, with whom he had partly occupied 
himself during his philosophical course. Of some of these, 
such as the Englishman Occam, in particular, whose acute- 
ness of reasoning he especially admired, there were writings 
which, in reference to questions of external Church polity, 
might have led him even then into paths of his own, if his 
mind had been disposed for it. These writings were directed 
against the absolute power of the Pope in the Church, and 
against his aggressions in the territory of Empire and 
State. But any such aim was very far removed from the 
monastic Order to which Luther had devoted himself, and 
from the theologians who were here his teachers. Palz, 
whom we have mentioned already, had especially distin- 
guished himself by his glorification of the Papal indul- 



48 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 

gences. Moreover, the whole Order, and the German 
convents belonging to it in particular, were indebted to the 
Pope for various acts of favour. Nor was Luther himself less 
careful to hold firmly to the ordinances of the hierarchy, 
than to avail himself of the means of salvation offered by 
the Church. 

What at all times in his theological studies enlisted his 
warmest personal interest was the difficult question, how 
sinners could obtain everlasting salvation. And all that 
he came j>o read on that subject in the writings of those 
theologians, and to hear from his learned teachers in the 
convent, served only to increase his fruitless inward wrest- 
lings, and his anxiety and sense of need. The great 
father of the Church, from whom his Order was named, 
and to whom their rules were ascribed, had once, on the 
ground of his own experiences of the struggle with sin and 
the flesh, laid down with great force, and in a triumphant 
controversy with his opponents, the doctrire that, as the 
Apostle says, salvation depends not on the conduct of man, 
but on the grace of God, not on the will of man, but on 
the willingness of God to pardon, Who alone transforms 
the sinner, and grants him the power and the will for good. 
But any knowledge or understanding of this theology of 
Augustine was as strange to his own Order as to the 
Scholastics. It was taught, indeed, that heaven was too 
high for man to attain to otherwise than by the grace of 
God. But it was also taught that the sinner, by his own 
natural strength, both could and ought to do enough in 
God's sight to earn that grace which would then help him 
further on the way to heaven. He who had thus obtained 
that grace, it was said, felt himself enabled and impelled 
to do even more than God's commands require. Reference 
to the bitter passion and death of the Saviour was not 
omitted, it is true, by the theologians with whom Luther 
had to do, and frequently, as. for example, by his teacher 
Palz, was impressed on Christian hearts in words full of 



AT THE < CONVENT AT ERFURT: 49 

feeling. But the chief stress was laid, not on the redeem- 
ing love on which man could rest his confident assurance, 
but on the necessity of offering oneself to Him who had 
offered Himself for man, and of submitting even to the 
pains of death, in imitation of Him, and to pay the penalty 
of sin. In this way, again and again, Luther saw before 
him claims on the part of God which he could never hope 
to satisfy. His sorest trial was caused by the thought that 
God Himself should have the will to let him fail after all 
his fruitless efforts, and finally be numbered with the lost. 
And it was just with the later Scholastics that he found, 
not indeed a theory according to which God had simply 
predestined a part of mankind to perdition, but a general 
conception of God which would represent Him as a Being 
not so much of holy love, as of arbitrary, absolute will. 

Luther spent two years in the convent amidst these 
strivings and inward sufferings. His spiritual life, as it 
was called, of strict discipline and asceticism was quoted 
in other convents as a model for imitation. Now and then, 
indeed, he felt himself puffed up with a sense of superior 
sanctity — ' a proud saint,' as he afterwards called himself. 
But humility was the ruling temper of his mind. Fre- 
quently, in after life, he described his condition as a warn- 
ing to others . Thus he speaks of the disciples of the law, 
who try by their own works, by constant labour, by wearing 
shuts of hair, by self- scourging, by fasting, by every means, 
in short, to satisfy the law. Such a one, he tells us, he 
himself had been. But he had also learned by experience, 
he adds, what happens when a man is tempted, and death 
or danger frightens him ; how he despairs, nay, would fly 
fi om God as from the devil, and would rather that there were 
no God at r-U. So great became his inward sufferings, that 
he thought both body and soul must succumb. Thus he 
tells us later on, when speaking of the torments of purga- 
tory, of a man, who doubtless was himself, how he had 
often endured such agony, only momentary it is true, but 

E 



SO LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 

so hellish in its violence, that no tongue could express nor 
pen describe it ; that, had it lasted longer, even for half 
an hour, or only five minutes, he must have died then 
and there, and his bones have been consumed to ashes. 
He himself saw afterwards in these pains, visitations of a 
special kind, such as God does not send to everyone. But 
they served him then as a proof, and one of universal 
application, that that school of the law, as he called it, 
would bring no real holiness either to others or himself, 
but must teach a man to despair of himself and of any 
claims or merits of his own. And, indeed, as we know 
from all that had gone before, it was not simply the ex- 
ternal barrenness of the regulations of Church and convent, 
or a sense of imperfect fulfilment on his part, that caused 
his restlessness of conscience ; what gave him the deepest 
anxiety and harassed him the most were those very inward 
stirrings, which revealed to him his opposition to God's 
eternal demands, the fulfilment of which he thought indis- 
pensable for reconciliation to God. 

His experiences at. the convent led him to the perception 
of those principles which formed the groundwork of his 
preaching as a Eeformer. From his exemplary conduct 
there, and his wonderful and active conversion, he was 
compared to St. Paul. In quite another sense he resembled 
the great Apostle. The latter, when a Pharisee, had 
laboured to justify himself before God by the law and the 
prophets. * wretched man that I am,' Luther there 
must have exclaimed of himself, and afterwards, looking 
back on his experiences, have counted alias ' dung and loss,' 
in order to be justified rather by faith through the grace of 
God and the Saviour, and to become free and holy. 

Just as, meanwhile, inside the Catholic Church, the 
laws, dogmas, and School theories relating to the means of 
salvation, were never able to supplant entirely the thought 
of the simple testimony of the Bible, and of the Church's 
own confession of God's forgiving love and His redeeming 



AT THE CONVENT AT ERFURT. 51 

and absolving grace, or to prevent simple, pious Christians 
from seeking here a refuge in the inmost depths of their 
hearts, so now, at this very convent of Erfurt, where 
Luther's inward development in those theories and dogmas 
had reached so high a pitch, he received also the first 
serious impressions in the other direction. They found 
with him a difficult and gradual entrance, from the energy 
and consistency with which he had taken up his original 
standpoint. But with all the more energy, and with perfect 
consistency, did he abandon that standpoint, when new 
light dawned upon him from his new conception of the 
truth. 

Luther's teacher at the convent, by whom we shall have 
to understand the superintendent of the novices, had 
already made a deep impression upon him, by reminding 
him of the words of the Apostles' Creed about the forgive- 
ness of sins, and representing to him, what Luther had 
never ventured to apply to himself, that the Lord himself 
had commanded us to hope. For this he referred him to 
a passage in the writings of St. Bernard, where that 
fervent preacher, imbued though he was in his theology 
with the Church notions of the middle ages, insists on the 
importance of this very faith in God's forgiveness, and 
appeals to the words of St. Paul that man is justified by 
grace through faith. Bemarks of this kind sank into 
Luther's mind, and took root there, though their fruit only 
ripened by degrees. Of his teacher Arnoldi, also, he spoke 
with admiration and gratitude, for the comfort he had 
known how to impart to him. 

But the one who at this time acquired by far the most 
potent, wholesome, and lasting influence upon Luther, was 
the Yicar- General, John von Staupitz. He was a remark- 
able man, of a noble and pious disposition, and a refined 
and far-seeing mind. A master of the forms of Scholastic 
theology, he was also deeply read in Scripture ; he made 
its teachings the special standard of his life, and was 

e2 



5? 



LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 



careful to enjoin others to do the same. He strove after an 
inward, practical life in God, not confined to mere forms 
and observances. Sharp conflicts and controversies were 
not to his taste ; but mildly and discreetly he sought to 
plant, in his own field of work, and to leave what he had 
planted in God's name to grow up. 

It was during his visits to Erfurt that Staupitz came in 
contact with the gifted, thoughtful, and melancholy young 




Fig. 5.— Staupitz. 
(From the Portrait in St. Peter's Convent at Salzburg.) 

monk. He treated Luther, both in conversation and letter, 
with fatherly confidence, and Luther unlocked to him 5 as to 
a father, his heart and its cares. Upon his wishing to confess 
to him all his many small sins, Staupitz insisted first on dis- 
tinguishing between what were really sins, and what were not ; 
as for self-imagined sins, or such a patchwork of offences as 
Luther laid before him, he would not listen to them ; that was 
not the kind of seriousness, he would say, that God wished to 
have. Luther tormented himself with a system of penance, 
consisting of actual pain, punishments, and expiations. 



AT THE CONVENT AT ERFURT. 53 

Staupitz taught him that repentance, in the Scriptural 
meaning, was an inward change and conversion, which 
must proceed from the love of holiness and of God ; and 
that, for peace with God, he must not look to his own 
good resolutions to lead a better life, which he had not the 
strength to carry out, or to his own acts, which could never 
satisfy the law of God, but must trust with patience to 
God's forgiving mercy, and learn to see in Christ, whom 
God permitted to suffer for the sins of man, not the threaten- 
ing Judge, but rather the loving Saviour. To Christ above 
all he referred him, when Luther pondered on the secret 
eternal will of God, and was near despair. God's eternal 
purpose, he would say, shines clearly in the wounds of 
Christ. Did his temptations not cease, he bade him see in 
them means to draw him to the love of God. The thoughts 
of Staupitz turned in this on the temptations to pride, 
which might themselves be the means of curing that pride, 
and on the great things for which God wished to prepare 
him. In a simple, practical manner, and from the expe- 
riences of his own life, he would thus counsel and converse 
with Luther. During the long course of a confidential 
intercourse with his friend, his own theology in later years 
became visibly developed, and his pupil of earlier days 
became afterwards his teacher. But Luther, both then 
and throughout his life, spoke of him with grateful affection 
as his spiritual father, and thanked God that he had been 
helped out of his temptations by Dr. Staupitz, without 
whom he would have been swallowed up in them and 
perished. 

The first firm ground, however, for his convictions and 
his inner life, and the foundation for all his later teachings 
and works, was found by Luther in his own persevering 
study of Holy Writ. In this also he was encouraged by 
Staupitz, who must, however, have been amazed at his 
indefatigable industry and zeal. For the interpretation of 
the Bible the means at his command were meagre in the 



54 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 

extreme. He himself explored in all cases to their very 
centre the truths of Christian salvation and the highest 
questions of moral and religious life. A single passage of 
importance would occupy his thoughts for days. Signifi- 
cant words, which he was not able yet to comprehend, 
remained fixed in his mind, and he carried them silently 
about with him. Thus it was, for example, as he tells us, 
with the text in Ezekiel, ' I will not the death of a sinner,' 
a passage which engrossed his earnest thoughts. 

It was the third and last year of his monastic life at 
Erfurt that brought with it, as far as we see, the decisive 
turn for his inward struggles and labours. 

In his second year, on May 2, 1507, he received, by 
command of his superiors, his solemn ordination as a 
priest. It was then for the first time since his entry into 
the convent against his father's will, that the latter saw 
him again. A convenient day was expressly arranged for 
him, to enable him to take part personally at the solemnity. 
He rode into Erfurt with a stately train of friends and 
relations. But in his opinion of the step taken by his son 
he remained unalterably firm. At the entertainment which 
was given in the convent to the young priest, the latter 
tried to extort from him a friendly remark upon the subject, 
by asking him why he seemed so angry, when monastic life 
was such a high and holy thing. His father replied in the 
presence of all the company, ' Learned brothers, have you 
not read in Holy Writ, that a man must honour father and 
mother ? ' And on being reminded how his son had been 
called, nay, compelled to this new life by heaven, ' Would 
to God,' he answered, ' it w T ere no spirit of the devil ! ' He 
let them understand that he was there, eating and drinking, 
as a matter of duty, but that he would much rather be 
away. 

To Luther, however, the post of high dignity to which 
he was now promoted brought new fear and anxiety. He 
had now to appear before God as a priest ; to have Christ's 



AT THE CONVENT AT ERFURT. 55 

Body, the very Christ Himself, and God actually present 
before him at the mass on the altar ; to offer the Body oi 
Christ as a sacrifice to the living and eternal God. Added 
to this, there were a multitude of forms to observe, any 
oversight wherein was a sin. All this so overpowered him 
at his first mass, that he could scarcely remain at the altar ; 
he was well-nigh, as he said afterwards, a dead man. 

With these priestly functions he united an assiduous 
devotion to his saints. By reading mass every morning, 
he invoked twenty-one particular saints, whom he had 
chosen as his helpers, taking three at a time, so as to 
include them all within the week. 

As regards the most important problems of life, his 
study of the Scriptures gradually revealed to him the light 
which determined his future convictions. The path had 
already been pointed out to him by the words of St. Paul 
quoted by St. Bernard. When looking back, at the close 
of his life, on this his inward development, he tells us how 
perplexed he had been by what St. Paul said of the 
' righteousness of God ' (Bom. i. 17). For a long time he 
troubled himself about the expression, connecting it as he 
did, according to the ruling theology of the day, with God's 
righteousness in His punishment of sinners. Day and 
night he pondered over the meaning and context of the 
Apostle's words. But at length, he adds, God in His great 
mercy revealed to him that what St. Paul and the gospel 
proclaimed was a righteousness given freely to us by the 
grace of God, Who forgives those who have faith in His 
message of mercy, and justifies them, and gives them 
eternal life. Therewith the gate of heaven was opened to 
him, and thenceforth the whole remaining purport of God's 
word became clearly revealed. Still it was only by degrees, 
during the latter portion of his stay at Erfurt, and even 
after that, that he arrived at this full perception of the 
truth. 

After their ordination the monks received the title of 



56 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 

fathers. Luther was ixvi as yet relieved of the duty of 
going out with a brother in quest of alms. But he was 
soon employed in the more important business of the 
Order, as, for instance, in transactions with a high official 
of the Archbishop, in which he displayed great zeal for the 
priesthood and for his Order. 

With the Scholastic theology of his time, albeit even now 
in a path marked out by himself, his keen understanding 
and happy memory had enabled him to become thoroughly 
familiar. He was scarcely twenty-five years old when 
Staupitz, occupied with making provision for the newly- 
founded university of Wittenberg, recognised in him the 
right man for a professorial chair* 



57 



CHAPTEK II. 

CALL TO WITTENBERG. JOURNEY TO ROME. 

Wittenberg was at that time the youngest of the German 
universities. It was founded in 1502 by the Elector 
Frederick the Wise of Saxony, a man pre-eminent among 
the German princes, not only from his prudence and circum- 
spection, but also from his faithful care for his country, his 
genuine love for knowledge, and his deep religious feeling. 
His country was not a rich one. W T ittenberg itself was a 
poor, badly-built town of about three thousand inhabitants. 
But the Elector showed his wisdom above all by his right 
choice of men whom he consulted in his work, and to whose 
hands he entrusted its conduct. These, in their turn, were 
very careful to select talented and trustworthy teachers for 
the institution, which was to depend for its success on the 
attractions offered by pure learning, and not those of out- 
ward show and a luxurious style of life among the students. 
The supervision of theology was entrusted by Frederick to 
Staupitz, whom personally he held in high esteem, and 
who, together with the learned and versatile Martin Pollich 
of Melrichstadt, had already been the most active in his 
service in promoting the foundation of the university. 
Staupitz himself entered the theological faculty as its first 
Dean. A constant or regular application to his duties was 
rendered impossible by the multifarious business of his 
Order, and the journeys it entailed. But in his very 
capacity of Vicar-General, he strove to supply the theo- 
logical needs of the university, and, by the means of educa- 
tion thus offered, to assist the members of his Order, 



58 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 

Already before this the Augustinian monks had had a settle- 
ment at Wittenberg, though little is known about it. A 
handsome convent was built for them in 1506. In a short 
time young inmates of this convent, and afterwards more 
monks of the same Order who came from other parts, entered 
the university as students and took academical degrees. 
The patron saint of the University was, next to the Virgin 
Mary, St. Augustine. Trutvetter of Erfurt became pro- 
fessor of theology at Wittenberg in 1507. It was early in 
the winter of 1508-9, when Staupitz, who had been re-elected 
for the second time, was still dean of the theological faculty, 
that Luther was suddenly and unexpectedly summoned 
thither. He had to obey not merely the advice and wish of 
an affectionate friend, but the will of the principal of his 
Order. 

As hitherto he had simply graduated as a master in 
philosophy, and had not qualified himself academically for 
a professor of theology, Luther at first was only called on 
to lecture on those philosophical subjects which, as we have 
seen, occupied his studies at Erfurt. Theologians, it is 
true, had been entrusted with these duties, just as, here at 
Wittenberg, the first dean of the philosophical faculty was 
a theologian, and, in addition to that indeed, a member of 
the Augustinian Order. But from the beginning, Luther 
was anxious to exchange the province of philosophy for that 
of theology, meaning thereby, as he expressed it, that 
theology which searched into the very kernel of the nut, 
the heart of the wheat, the marrow of the bones. So far, 
he was already confident of having found a sure ground for 
his Christian faith, as well as for his inner life, and having 
found it, of being able to begin teaching others. Indeed, 
while busily engaged in his first lectures on philosophy, he 
was preparing to qualify himself for his theological degrees. 
Here also he had to begin with his baccalaureate, compri- 
sing in fact three different steps in the theological faculty, 
each of which had to be reached by an examination and 



CALL TO WITTENBERG.— JOURNEY TO ROME. 59 

disputation. The first step was that of bachelor of biblical 
knowledge, which qualified him to lecture on the Holy 
Scriptures. The second, or that of a Sententiarius, was 
necessary for lecturing on the chief compendium of 
mediaeval School-theology, the so-called Sentences of Peter 
Lombardus, the due performance of which duty led to the 
attainment of the third step. Above the baccalaureate, 
with its three grades, came the rank of licentiate, which 
gave the right to teach the whole of theology, and lastly the 
formal, solemn admission as doctor of theology. Already, on 
March 9, 1509, Luther had attained his first step in the 
baccalaureate. At the end of six months he was qualified, 
by the statutes of the university, to reach the second step, 
and in the course of the next six months he actually 
reached it. 

But before gaining his new rights as a Sententiarius, he 
was summoned back by the authorities of his Order to 
Erfurt. The reason we do not know ; we only know that 
\ie entered the theological faculty there as professor, receiv- 
ing, at the same time, the recognition of the academical 
rank he had acquired at Wittenberg. At Erfurt he re- 
mained about three terms, or eighteen months. After that 
he returned to the university at Wittenberg. Trutvetter, 
towards the end of 1510, had received a summons back 
to Erfurt from Wittenberg. The void thus caused by his 
summons away may have had something to do with 
Luther's return thither. At all events his position at 
Wittenberg was now vastly different from that which he 
had previously held. No theologian, his superior in years 
or fame, was any longer above him. 

Ere long, however, Luther received another commission 
from his Order ; a proof of the confidence reposed also in 
his zeal for the Order, his practical understanding, and his 
energy. It was about a matter in which, by Staupitz's 
desire, other Augustinian convents in Germany were to 
enter into a union with the reformed convents and the 



6o LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 

Vicar of the Order. As opposition had been raised, Luther 
in 1511, no doubt at the suggestion of Staupitz, was sent 
on this matter to Kome, where the decision was to be given. 
The journey thither and back may easily have taken six 
weeks or more. According to rule and custom, two monks 
were always sent out together, and a lay-brother was given 
them for service and company. They used to make then- 
way on foot. In Kome the brethren of the Order were 
received by the Augustinian monastery of Maria del Fopolo. 
Thus Luther went forth to the great capital of the world, 
to the throne of the Head of the Church. He remained 
there four weeks, discharging his duties, and surrounded by 
all her monuments and relics of ecclesiastical interest. 

No definite account of the result of the business he had 
to transact, has been handed down to us. We only learn 
that Staupitz, the Vicar of the Order, was afterwards on 
friendly relations with the convents which had opposed his 
scheme, and that he refrained from urging any more 
unwelcome innovations. For us, however, the most im- 
portant parts of this journey are the general observations 
and experiences which Luther made in Italy, and, above 
all, at the Papal chair itself. He often refers to them later 
in his speeches and writings, in the midst of his work and 
warfare, and he tells us plainly how important to him after- 
wards was all that he there saw and heard. 

The devotion of a pilgrim inspired him as he arrived at 
the city which he had long regarded with holy veneration. 
It had been his wish, during his troubles and heart-search- 
ings, to make one day a regular and general confession 
in that city. When he came in sight of her, he fell upon 
the earth, raised his hands, and exclaimed ' Hail to thee, 
holy Eome ! ' She was truly sanctified, he declared after- 
wards, through the blessed martyrs, and their blood which 
had flowed within her walls. But he added, with indigna- 
tion at himself, how he had run like a crazy saint on a 
pilgrimage through all the churches and catacombs, and 



CALL TO WITTENBERG.— JOURNEY TO ROME. 61 

had believed what turned out to be a mass of rank lies and 
impostures. He would gladly then have clone something 
for the welfare of his friends' souls by mass-reading and 
acts of devotion in places of particular sanctity. He felt 
downright sorry, he tells us, that his parents were still 
alive, as he might have performed some special act to 
release them from the pains of purgatory. 

But in all this he found no real peace of mind : on the 
contrary, his soul was stirred to the consciousness of 
another way of salvation which had already begun to 
dawn upon him. Whilst climbing, on his knees and in 
prayer, the sacred stairs which were said to have led to the 
Judgment-hall of Pilate, and whither, to this clay, wor- 
shippers are invited by the promise of Papal absolutions, 
he thought of the words of St. Paul in his Epistle to the 
Eomans (i. 17), ' The just shall live by faith. As for any 
spiritual enlightenment and consolation, he found none 
among the priests and monks of Kome. He was struck 
indeed with the external administration of business and the 
nice arrangement of legal matters at the Papal see. But 
he was shocked by all that he observed of the moral and 
religious life and doings at this centre of Christianity ; the 
immorality of the clergy, and particularly of the highest 
dignitaries of the Church, who thought themselves highly 
virtuous if they abstained from the very grossest offences ; 
the wanton levity with which the most sacred names and 
things were treated ; the frivolous unbelief, openly expressed 
among themselves by the spiritual pastors and masters 
of the Church. He complains of the priests scram- 
bling through mass as if they were juggling ; while he 
was reading one mass, he found they had finished seven : 
one of them once urged him to be quick by saying ' Get 
on, get on, and make haste to send her Son home to 
our Lady.' He heard jokes even made about the priests 
when consecrating the elements at mass, repeating in Latin- 
the words ' Bread thou art, and bread thou shalt remain : 



62 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 

wine thou art, and wine thou shalt remain.' He often re- 
marked in later years how they would apply in derision the 
term 'good Christian' to those who were stupid enough to 
believe in Christian truth, and to be scandalised by any- 
thing said to the contrary. No one, he declared, would 
believe what villanies and shameful doings were then in 
vogue, if they had not seen and heard them with their own 
eyes and ears. But the truth of his testimony is confirmed 
by those very men whose life and conduct so shocked and 
revolted him. He must have been indignant, moreover, at 
the contemptuous tone in which the ' stupid Germans ' or 
' German beasts ' were spoken of, as persons entitled to no 
notice or respect at Eome. 

He was astonished at the pomp and splendour which 
surrounded the Pope when he appeared in public. He speaks, 
as an eye-witness, of the processions, like those of a triumph- 
ing monarch. But the horrible stories were then still fresh 
at Eome of the late Pope Alexander and his children, the 
murder of his brother, the poisoning, the incest, and other 
crimes. Of the then Pope, Julius II., Luther heard nothing 
reported, except that he managed his temporal affairs with 
energy and shrewdness, made war, collected money, and 
contracted and dissolved, entered into and broke, political 
alliances. At the time of Luther's visit, he was just return- 
ing from a campaign in which he had conducted in person 
the sanguinary siege of a town. Luther did not fail to observe 
that he had established in the sacred city an excellent body 
of police, and that he caused the streets to be kept clean, so 
that there was not much pestilence about. But he looked 
upon him simply as a man of the world, and afterwards 
fulminated against him as a strong man of blood. 

All these experiences at Borne did not, however, then 
avail to shake Luther's faith in the authority of the hierarchy 
which had such unworthy ministers ; though, later on, when 
he was forced to attack the Papacy itself, they made it 
easier for him to shape his judgment and conclusions. ' I 



CALL TO WITTENBERG.— JOURNEY TO ROME. 63 

would not have missed seeing Eome/ he then declared, ' for 
a hundred thousand florins, for I might then have felt 
some apprehension that I had done injustice to the Pope. 
But as we see, we speak.' 

During his visit he also roamed about among the ruins 
of the ancient capital of the world, and was astonished at 
the remains of bygone worldly splendour. The works of 
the new art which Pope Julius was then beginning to call 
into existence, did not appear to have particularly engaged 
his attention. The Pope was then progressing with the 
building of the new Church of St. Peter. The indulgence, 
of which the proceeds were to enable the completion of this 
vast undertaking, led afterwards to the struggle between the 
Augustinian monk and the Papacy. 



64 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 



CHAPTEE III. 

LUTHER AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHER, TO 1517 

On his return to his Wittenberg convent, Luther was made 
sub-prior. At the university he entered fully upon all the 
rights and duties of a teacher of theology, having been 
made licentiate and doctor. Here again it was Staupitz, 
his friend and spiritual superior, who urged this step : 
Luther's own wish was to leave the university and devote 
himself entirely to the office of his Order. The Elector 
Frederick, who had been struck with Luther by hearing one 
of his sermons, took this, the first opportunity, of showing 
him personal sympathy, by offering to defray the expenses 
of his degree. Luther was reluctant to accept this, and 
years after he was fond of showing his friends a pear- 
tree in the courtyard of the convent, under which he dis- 
cussed the matter with Staupitz, who, however, insisted on 
his demand. He must have felt the more sensibly the 
responsibility of his new task, from his own personal 
strivings after new and true theological light. It was a 
satisfaction to him afterwards, amidst the endless and 
unexpected labours and contests which his vocation brought 
with it, to reflect that he had undertaken it, not from choice, 
but so entirely from obedience. ' Had I known what I now 
know,' he would exclaim in his later trials and dangers, ' not 
ten horses would ever have dragged me into it.' 

After the necessary preliminaries and customary forms, 
he received on October 4, 1512, the rights of a licentiate, 
and on the 18th and 19th was solemnly admitted to the 
degree of doctor. As licentiate he promised to defend with 



LUTHER AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHER. 6$ 

all his power the truth of the gospel, and he must have 
had this oath particularly in his mind when he afterwards 
appealed to the fact of his having sworn on his beloved 
Bible to preach it faithfully and in its purity. His oath as 
doctor, which followed, bound bim to abstain from doctrines 
condemned by the Church and offensive to pious ears. 
Obedience to the Pope was not required at Wittenberg, as it 
was at other universities. 

Others, besides Staupitz, expected from the beginning 
something original and remarkable from the new professor. 
Pollich, the first great representative of Wittenberg in its 
early days, and who died in the following year, said of him, 
* This monk will revolutionise the whole system of Scholastic 
teaching.' He seems, like others whom we hear of after- 
wards, to have been especially struck with the depth of 
Luther's eyes, and thought that they must reveal the 
working of a wonderful mind. 

A new theology, in fact, presented itself at once to 
Luther in the subject which, as doctor, he chose and 
exclusively adhered to in his lectures. This was the Bible, 
the very book of which the study was so generally under- 
valued in School-theology, which so many doctors of 
theology scarcely knew, and which was usually so hastily 
forsaken for those Scholastic sentences and a corresponding 
exposition of ecclesiastical dogmas. 

Luther began with lectures upon the Psalms. It is 
his first work on theology which has remained to pos- 
terity. We still possess a Latin text of the Psalter fur- 
nished with running notes for his lectures, and also his 
own manuscript of those lectures themselves. In these 
also he states that his task was imposed upon him by a 
distinct command: he frankly confessed that as yet he 
was insufficiently acquainted with the Psalms; a com- 
parison of his notes and lectures shows further, how 
continually he was engaged in prosecuting these studies. 
His explanations indeed fall short of what is required at 



66 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 

present, and even of what he himself required later on. He 
still follows wholly the mediaeval practice of thinking it neces- 
sary to find, throughout the words of the Psalmist, pictorial 
allegories relating to Christ, His work of salvation, and His 
people. But he was thus enabled to propound, while 
explaining the Psalms, the fundamental principles of that 
doctrine of salvation which for some years past had taken 
such hold on his inmost thoughts and so engrossed his 
theological studies. And in addition to the fruits of his 
researches in Scripture, especially in the writings of 
St. Paul, we observe the use he made of the works of 
St. Augustine. His acquaintance with the latter did not 
commence until years after he had joined the Order, and 
had acquired independently an intimate knowledge of the 
Bible. It was mainly through them that he was enabled 
to comprehend the teaching of St. Paul, and to find how 
the doctrine of Divine grace, which we have already 
alluded to, was based on Pauline authority. Thus the 
founder of the Order became, as it were, his first teacher 
among human theologians. 

From his lectures on the Psalms Luther proceeded a 
few years later to an exposition of those Epistles which 
were to him the main source of his new belief in God's 
mercy and justice, namely, the Epistles to the Bomans and 
the Galatians. 

In the convent also at Wittenberg, the direction of 
the theological studies of the brethren was entrusted to 
Luther. His fellow-labourer in this field was his friend 
John Lange, who had been with him also in the convent at 
Erfurt. He was distinguished for a rare knowledge of 
Greek, and was therefore a valuable help even to Luther, 
to whom he was indebted in turn for a prolific advance in 
learning of another kind. Closely allied with Luther also 
was Wenzeslaus Link, the prior of the convent, who ob- 
tained his degree as doctor of the theological faculty a year 
before him* These men were drawn together by similarity 



LUTHER AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHER. 67 

of ideas, and by a strong and enduring personal friend- 
ship ; they had possibly been acquainted at the school at 
Magdeburg. The new life and activity awakened at Witten- 
berg attracted clever young monks more and more from a 
distance. The convent, not yet quite finished, had scarcely 
room enough for them, or means for their maintenance. 

When in 1515 the associated convents had to choose at 
Gotha, on a chapter-day, their new authorities, Luther was 
appointed, Staupitz being still Yicar- General, the Provin- 
cial Vicar for Meissen and Thuringia. He obtained by this 
office the superintendence of eleven convents, to which in 
the next year he paid the customary visitation. In person, 
by word of mouth, and equally by letters, we see him 
labouring with self-sacrificing zeal for the spiritual welfare 
of those committed to his care, for the correction of bad 
monks, for the comfort of those oppressed with temptations, 
as also for the temporal and domestic, and even the legal 
business of the different convents. 

In addition to his academical duties, he performed 
double service as a preacher. In the first place he had to 
preach in his convent, as he had already done at Erfurt. 
When the new convent at Wittenberg was opened, the 
church was not yet ready ; and in a small, poor, tumble- 
down chapel close by, made up of wood and clay, he began 
to preach the gospel and unfold the power of his eloquence. 
When, shortly after, the town-priest of Wittenberg became 
weak and ailing, his congregation pressed Luther to occupy 
the pulpit in his place. He performed these different duties 
with alacrity, energy, and power. He would preach some- 
times daily for a week together, sometimes even three times 
in one day; during Lent in 1517 he gave two sermons 
every day in addition to his lectures at the university. 
The zeal which he displayed in proclaiming the gospel to 
his hearers in church, was quite as new and peculiar to 
himself as the lofty interest he imparted to his professorial 
lectures on the Scriptures. 

J?2 



68 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 

Melancthon says of these first lectures by Luther on 
the Psalms and the Epistle to the Eomans, that after a 
long and dark night, a new day was now seen to dawn on 
Christian doctrine. In these lectures Luther pointed out 
the difference between the law and the gospel. He refuted 
the errors, then predominant in the Church and schools, 
the old teaching of the Pharisees, that men could earn for- 
giveness by their works, and that mere outward penance 
would justify them in the sight of God. Luther called 
men back to the Son of God ; and just as John the 
Baptist pointed to the Lamb of God who bore our sins, 
so Luther showed how, for his Son's sake, God in His 
mercy will forgive us our sins, and how we must accept 
such mercy in faith. 

In fact, the whole groundwork of that Christian faith 
on which the inner life of the Eeformer rests, for which he 
fought, and which gave him strength and fresh courage for 
the fight, lies already before us in his lectures and sermons 
during those years, and increases in clearness and decision. 
The ' new day ' had, in • reality, broken upon his eyes. 
That fundamental truth which he designated later as the 
article by which a Christian Church must stand or fall, 
stands here already firmly established, before he in the least 
suspects that it would lead him to separate from the Catholic 
Church, or that his adopting it would occasion a reconstruc- 
tion of the Church. The primary question around which 
everything else centred, remained always this — how he, the 
sinful man, could possibly stand before God and obtain 
salvation. With this came the question as to the righteous- 
ness of God ; and now he was no longer terrified by the 
avenging justice of God, wherewith He threatens the 
sinner ; but he recognised and saw the meaning of that 
righteousness declared in the gospel (Eom. i. 17, Hi. 25), 
by which the merciful God justifies the faithful, in that He 
of His own grace re-establishes them in His sight, and 
effects an inward change, and lets them thenceforth, like 



LUTHER AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHER. 69 

children, enjoy His fatherly love and blessing. Luther, 
in teaching now that justification proceeds from faith, 
rejects, above all, the notion that man by any outward acts 
of his own can ever atone for his sins and merit the favour 
of God. He reminds us, moreover, with regard to moral 
works especially, that good fruits always presuppose a good 
tree, upon which alone they can grow, and that, in like 
manner, goodness can only proceed from a man, if and 
when, in his inward being, his inward thoughts, tenden- 
cies, and feelings, he has already become good ; he must 
be righteous himself, in a word, before he works righteous- 
ness. But it is faith, and faith alone, which hi the inward 
man determines real communion with God. Then only, 
and gradually, can a man's own inner being, trusting to 
God, and by means of His imparted grace, become truly 
renovated and purged from sin. Had Luther, indeed, 
made salvation depend on such a righteousness, derived 
from a man's own works, as should satisfy the holy God, 
the very consciousness of his own sins and infirmities 
would have made him despair of such salvation. Moreover, 
all the working of the Holy Spirit, and His gifts in our 
hearts, presuppose that we are already participators of the 
forgiving mercy and grace of God, and are received into 
communion with Him. To this, as Luther teaches after 
St. Paul, we can only attain through faith in the joyful 
message of His mercy, in His compassion, and in His Son, 
whom He has sent to be our Eedeemer. Thus he speaks 
of faith, even in his earliest notes on the Psalter, as the 
keystone, the marrow, the short road. The worst enemy, 
in his sight, is self-righteousness ; he confesses having had 
to combat it himself. 

Herein also Luther found the theology of St. Augustine 
in accord with the testimony of the great Apostle. While 
studying that theology, his conviction of the power of sin 
and the powerlessness of man's own strength to overcome it, 
grew more and more decided. But St. Paul taught him to 



70 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 

understand that belief somewhat differently to St. Augus- 
tine. To Luther it was not merely a recognition of objec- 
tive truths or historical facts. What he understood by 
it, with a clearness and decision which are wanting in St. 
Augustine's teaching, was the trusting of the heart in the 
mercy offered by the message of salvation, the personal 
confidence in the Saviour Christ and in that which He has 
gained for us. With this faith, then, and by the merits 
and mediation of the Saviour in whom this faith is placed, 
we stand before God, we have already the assurance of 
being known by God and of being saved, and we are 
partakers of the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies more and more 
the inner man. According to St. Augustine, on the con- 
trary, and to all Catholic theologians who followed his 
teaching, what will help us before God is rather that in- 
ward righteousness which God Himself gives to man by 
His Holy Spirit and the workings of His grace, or, as the 
expression was, the righteousness infused by God. The 
good, therefore, already existing in a Christian is so highly 
esteemed that he can thereby gain merit before the just 
God and even do more than is required of him. But 
to a conscience like Luther's, which applied so severe a 
standard to human virtue and works, and took such stern 
count of past and present sins, such a doctrine could bring 
no assurance of forgiveness, mercy, and salvation. It was 
in faith alone that Luther had found this assurance, and 
for it he needed no merits of his own. The happy spirit 
of the child of God, by its own free impulse, would produce in 
a Christian the genuine good fruit pleasing in God's sight. 
It was a long time before Luther himself became aware 
how he differed on this point from his chief teacher 
amongst theologians. But we see the difference appear at 
the very root and beginning of his new doctrine of salva- 
tion ; and it comes out finally, based on apostolic authority, 
clear and sharp, in the theology of the Beformer. 

And inseparably connected with this is what Melancthon 



LUTHER AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHER. 7 i 

said about the Law and the Gospel. Luther himself always 
declared in later days, that the whole understanding of the 
truth of Christian salvation, as revealed by God, depends 
on a right perception of the relation of one to the other, 
and this very relation he explained, shortly before the 
beginning of his contest with the Church, upon the 
authority of St. Paul's Epistles. The Law is to him the 
epitome of God's demands with regard to will and works, 
which still the sinner cannot fulfil. The Gospel is the 
blessed offer and announcement of that forgiving mercy of 
God which is to be accepted in simple faith. By the Law 
says Luther, the sinner is judged, condemned, killed ; he 
himself had to toil and disquiet himself under it, as though 
he were in the hands of a gaoler and executioner. The 
Gospel first lifts up those who are crushed, and makes 
them alive by the faith which the good message awakens 
in their hearts. But God works in both ; in the one, a 
work which to Him, the God of love, would properly be 
strange ; in the other, His own work of love, for which, 
however, he has first prepared the sinner by the former. 

Whilst Luther was prosecuting his labours in this path, 
he became acquainted in 1516 with the sermons of the 
pious, deep-thinking theologian Tauler, who died in 1361 ; 
and at the same time an old theological tract, written not 
long after Tauler, fell into his hands, to which he gave the 
name of ' German Theology.' Now for the first time, and 
in the person of their noblest representatives, he was con- 
fronted with the Christian and theological views which 
were commonly designated as the practical German mysti- 
cism of the middle ages. Here, instead of the value which 
the mediaeval Church, so addicted to externals, ascribed to 
outward acts and ordinances, he found the most devout 
absorption in the sentiments of real Christian religion. 
Instead of the barren, formal expositions and logical opera- 
tions of the scholastic intellect, he found a striving and 
wrestling of the whole inner man, with all the mind and 



72 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 

will, after direct communion and union with God, who 
Himself seeks to draw into this union the soul devoted to 
Him, and makes it become like to himself. Such a depth 
of contemplation and such fervour of a Christian mind 
Luther had not found even in an Augustine. He rejoiced 
to see this treasure written in his native German, and it 
certainly was the noblest German he had ever read. He 
felt himself marvellously impressed by this theology ; he 
knew of no sermons, so he wrote to a friend, which agreed 
more faithfully with the gospel than those of Tauler. He 
published that tract — then not quite complete — in 1516, 
and again afterwards in 1518. It was the first publication 
from his hand. His further sermons and writings show 
how deeply he was imbued with its contents. The in- 
fluences he here rece ved had a lasting effect on the forma- 
tion of his inner life and his theology 

"With regard to sin, he now learned that its deepest roots 
and fundamental character lay in our own wills, in self-love 
and selfishness. To enjoy communion with God it is neces- 
sary that the heart should put away all worldliness, and let 
its natural will be dead, so that God alone may live and work 
in us. So, as he says on the title-page of ' German Theo- 
logy,' shall Adam die in us and Christ be made alive. But 
the essential peculiarity of Luther's doctrine of salvation, 
grounded as it was directly on Scripture, still remained intact, 
despite the theology no less of the mystics than of Augustine, 
and, after passing through these influences, developed its 
full independence during his struggles as a Reformer. For 
this communion with God he never thought it necessary, as 
the mystics maintained, to renounce one's personality and 
retire altogether from the world and things temporal : a 
purely passive attitude towards God, and a blessedness con- 
sisting in such an attitude, was not his highest or ultimate 
ideal. A man's personality, he held, should only be de- 
stroyed so far as it resists the will of God, and dares to 
assert its self-righteousness and merits before Him. The 



LUTHER AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHER. 73 

road to real communion with God was always that ' short 
road ' of faith, in which the contrite sinner, who feels his 
personality crushed by the consciousness of sin, grasps the 
hand of Divine mercy, and is lifted up by it and restored. 
Christ was manifested, as the mystics said with Scripture, 
in order that the man's personality should die with Him, 
and imitate Him in self-renunciation. But the faith, 
on which Luther insisted, saw in Christ above all the 
Saviour who -has died for us, and who pleads for us before 
God with His holy life and conduct, that the faithful may 
obtain through Him reconciliation and salvation. What 
the Saviour is to us in this respect Luther has thus sum- 
marised in words of his own : ' Lord Jesus,' he says, ' Thou 
hast taken to Thyself what is mine, and given to me what 
is Thine.' The main divergence between Luther and the 
German mysticism of the middle ages consists primarily 
in a different estimate of the general relations between 
God and the moral personality of man. With the mystics, 
behind the Christian and religious, lay a metaphysical con- 
ception of God, as a Being of absolute power, superior to all 
destiny, apparently rich in attributes, but in reality an empty 
Abstraction, — above all, a Being who suffers nothing finite to 
exist in independence of Himself. With Luther the funda- 
mental conception of God remained this, that He is the 
perfect Good, and that, in His perfect holiness, He is Love. 
This is the God by whom the sinner who has faith is re- 
stored and justified. From this conception as a starting- 
point, Luther acquired fresh strength and energy for 
advancing in the fight, whilst the pious mystic remained 
passively and quietly behind. From this also he learned 
to realise Christian liberty and moral duty in regard to 
daily life and its vocations, whilst the mystics remained 
shut off altogether from the world. The intimate con- 
nection between the conclusions to which the views of 
Tauler tended, and the principles from which Luther 
started, is shown further by the superior attraction which 



74 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 

those sermons, so warmly recommended by Luther, com 
tinued to exercise upon members of the Evangelical, com- 
pared with those of the Catholic Church. 

What Christ has suffered and done for us, and how we 
gain through Him the righteousness of God, peace, and 
real life, — these thoughts of practical religion pervaded 
now all Luther's discourses. To the saving knowledge of 
these facts he endeavoured to direct his lectures, and 
discarded the dogmatical inquiries and subtle investiga- 
tions and speculations of School-theology. At first, and 
even in his sermons at the convent, he had employed 
in his exposition of Biblical truths, as was the custom of 
learned preachers, philosophical expressions and references 
to Aristotle and famous Scholastics. But latterly, and at 
the time we are speaking of, he had entirely left this off; 
and, as regards the form of his sermons, instead of a stiff, 
logical construction of sentences, he employed that simple, 
lively, powerful eloquence which distinguished him above 
all preachers of his time. In 1516 and 1517 he delivered 
a course of sermons on the Ten Commandments and the 
Lord's Prayer before his town congregation, with the view 
of showing the connection of the truths of Christian re- 
ligion. He further had printed in 1517, for Christian 
readers generally, an explanation of the seven penitential 
psalms. He wished, as the title stated, to expound them 
thoroughly in their Scriptural meaning, for setting forth the 
grace of Christ and God, and enabling true self-knowledge. 
It is the first of his writings, published by himself, and 
in the German language, which we possess; for the later 
lectures that were published were delivered by him in 
Latin, and the first sermons we have of his were also 
written by him in that language. We give here the title 
and preface from the original print. 

Luther had now become possessed with a burning desire 
to refute, by means of the truth he had newly learned, the 
teaching and system of that School-theology on which he 



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76 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 

himself had wasted so much time and labour, and by which 
he saw that same truth darkened and obstructed. He first 
attacked Aristotle, the heathen philosopher from whom this 
theology, he said, received its empty and perverted for- 
malism, whose system of physics was worthless, and who. 
especially in his conception of moral life and moral good, 
was blind, since he knew nothing of the essence and ground 
of true righteousness. The Scholastics, as Luther himself 
remarked against them, had failed signally to understand 
the genuine original philosophy of Aristotle. But the real 
greatness and significance which must be allowed to that 
philosophy, in the development of human thought and 
knowledge, were far removed from those profound ques- 
tions of Christian morality and religion which engrossed 
Luther's mind, and from those truths to which he again 
had to testify. In theses which formed the subject of dis- 
putation among his followers, Luther expressed with par- 
ticular aciiteness his own doctrine, and that of Augustine, 
concerning the inability of man, and the grace of God, and 
his opposition to the previously dominant Schoolmen and 
their Aristotle. He was anxious also to hear the verdict of 
others, particularly of his teacher Trutvetter, upon his new 
polemics. 

He already could boast that, at Wittenberg, his, or as 
he called it, the Augustinian theology, had found its way 
to victory. It was adopted by the theologians who had 
taught there, though wholly in the old Scholastic fashion, 
before him, especially by Carlstadt, who soon strove to 
outbid him in this new direction, and who, later on, in 
his own zeal for reform, fell into disputes with the great 
' Eeformer himself, and also by Nicholas von Amsdorf, whom 
we shall see afterwards at Luther's side as his personal 
friend and strongest supporter. At Erfurt, Luther's former 
convent, his friend and sympathiser Lange was now prior, 
having returned thither from Wittenberg, where indeed 
his former teachers could not yet accommodate them- 



LUTHER A$ THEOLOGICAL TEACHER. 77 

selves to his new ways. Of great importance to Luther's 
work and position was his friendship with George Spalatin 
(properly Burkardt of Spelt), the court preacher and 
private secretary of the Elector Frederick, a conscientious, 
clear-minded theologian, and a man of varied culture and 
calm, thoughtful judgment. He was of the same age as 
Luther ; he had been with him at Erfurt as a fellow- 
student, and at Wittenberg afterwards, whither he came as 




Fig. 7. — Spalatin. (Prom L. Cranach's Portrait.) 

tutor to the prince, and had remained on terms of in- 
timacy with him. To Luther he proved an upright, warm- 
hearted friend, and to the Elector a faithful and sagacious 
adviser. It was mainly due to his influence that the 
Elector showed such continued favour to Luther, marks of 
which he displayed by presents, such as that of a piece of 
richly-wrought cloth, which Luther thought almost too good 
for a monk's frock. Spalatin had also been a member of 
that circle of ' poets ' at Erfurt ; he kept up his connection 



78 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 

with them, and corresponded with Erasmus, the head of the 
Humanists, and thus acted as a medium of communication 
for Luther in this quarter. Elsewhere in Germany we find 
the theology of Augustine or of St. Paul, as represented by 
Luther, taking root first among his friends at Nuremberg \ 
in 1517 W. Link came there as prior of the Augustinian 
eon vent. 

We have seen how Luther as a student associated with 
the young Humanists at Eriurt, and now, whilst striving 
further on that road of theology which he had marked out 
for himself, he was still accessible to the general interests of 
learning as represented by the Humanistic movement. He 
made the acquaintance, at least by letter, of the celebrated 
Mutianus Kufus of Gotha, whom those ' poets ' honoured 
as their famous master, and with whom Lange and Spalatin 
maintained a respectful intercourse. When the Humanist 
John Reuchlin, then the first Hebrew scholar in Germany, 
was declared a heretic by zealous theologians and monks, 
on account of the protests he raised against the burning of 
the Rabbinical books of the Jews, and a fierce quarrel broke 
out in consequence, Luther, on being asked by Spalatin for 
his opinion, declared himself strongly for the Humanists 
against those who, being gnats themselves, tried to swallow 
camels. His heart, he said, was so full of this matter that 
his tongue could not find utterance . Still, the bold satire 
with which his former college friend Crotus and other 
Humanists lashed their opponents and held them up to 
ridicule, as in the famous ' Epistolae Virorum Obscurorum, 
was not to Luther's taste at all. The matter was to him 
far too serious for such treatment. 

' The first place among the men who revived the 
knowledge of antiquity, and strove to apply that knowledge 
for the benefit of their own times and particularly of 
theology, belongs undoubtedly to Erasmus, from his com- 
prehensive learning, his refinement of mind, and his in- 
defatigable industry. Just hen, in 1516, he brought out 



LUTHER AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHER 



79 



a remarkable edition of the New Testament, with a transla- 
tion and -explanatory comments, which forms in fact an 
epoch in its history. Luther recognised his high talents and 
services, and was anxious to see him exercise the influence 




Fig. 8. —Erasmus. (From the Portrait by A. Diirer.) 

he deserved. He speaks of him in a letter to Spalatin as 
■ our Erasmus.' But nevertheless he steadily asserted his 
own independence, and reserved the right of free judgment 
about him. Two things he lamented in him ; fhst of all 



80 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR. 

that he lacked, as was the case, the comprehension of that 
fundamental doctrine of St. Paul as to human sin and 
righteousness by faith ; and further, that he made even the 
errors of the Church, which should be a source of genuine 
sorrow to every Christian, a subject of ridicule. He sought, 
however, to keep his opinion of Erasmus to himself, to 
avoid giving occasion to his jealous and unscrupulous 
enemies to malign him. 

Bitterness and ill-will, aroused by Luther's words and 
works, were already not wanting among the followers of the 
hitherto dominant views of theology and the Church. But 
of any separation from the Church, her authority and her 
fundamental forms, he had as yet no intention or idea. 
Nor, on the other hand, did his enemies take occasion to 
obtain sentence of expulsion against him, until he found 
himself forced to conclusions which threatened the power 
and the income of the hierarchy. 

As yet he had not expressed or entertained a thought 
against the ordinances which enslaved every Christian to 
the priesthood and its power. He certainly showed, in his 
new doctrine of salvation, the way which leads the soul, by 
simple faith in the message of mercy sent to all alike, to 
its God and Saviour. But he had no idea of disputing 
that everyone should confess to the priests, receive from 
them absolution, and submit to all the penances and ordi- 
nances ordained by the Church. And in that very doctrine 
of salvation he knew that he was at one with Augustine, 
the most eminent teacher of the Western Church, whilst the 
opposite views, however dominant in point of fact, had never 
yet received any formal sanction of the Church. Zealously, 
indeed, he soon exposed many practical abuses and errors 
in the religious life of the Church. But hitherto these were 
only such as had been long before complained of and com- 
bated by others, and which the Church had never expressly 
declared as essential parts of her own system. He gave 
vent freely to his opinions about the superstitious worship of 



LUTHER AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHER. 81 

saints, about absurd legends, about the heathen practice of 
invoking the saints for temporal welfare or success. But 
praying to the saints to intercede for us with God he still 
justified against the heresy originating with Huss, and with 
fervour he invoked the Yirgin from the pulpit. He was 
anxious that the priests and bishops should do their duty 
much better and more conscientiously than was the case, 
and that instead of troubling themselves about worldly 
matters, they should care for the good of souls, and feed 
their flocks with God's word. He saw in the office of 
bishop, from the difficulties and temptations it involved, an 
office fraught with danger, and one therefore that he did 
not wish for his Staupitz. But the Divine origin and 
Divine right of the hierarchical offices of pope, bishop, and 
priest, and the infallibility of the Church, thus governed, 
he held inviolably sacred. The Hussites who broke from 
her were to him ' sinful heretics.' Nay, at that time he. 
used the very argument by which afterwards the Bomish 
Church thought to crush the principles and claims of the 
Beformation, namely, that if we deny that power of the 
Church and Papacy, any man may equally say that he is 
filled with the Holy Ghost ; everyone will claim to be his 
own master, and there will be as many Churches as heads. 
As yet he was only seeking to combat those abuses 
which were outside the spirit and teaching of the Catholic 
Church, when the scandals of the traffic in indulgences 
called him to the field of battle. And it was only when in 
this battle the Pope and the hierarchy sought to rob him of 
his evangelical doctrine of salvation, and of the joy and 
comfort he derived from the knowledge of redemption by 
Christ, that, from his stand on the Bible, he laid his hands 
upon the strongholds of this Churchdom. 



82 



PART III. 

THE BREACH WITH ROME, UP TO THE DIET OF 
WORMS. 1517-21. 



CHAPTEE I. 

THE NINETY-FIVE THESES. 



The first occasion for the struggle which led to the great 
division in the Christian world was given by that magni- 
ficent edifice of ecclesiastical splendour intended by the 
popes as the creation of the new Italian art ; by the build- 
ing, in a word, of St. Peter's Church, which had already 
been commenced when Luther was at Eome. Indulgences 
were to furnish the necessary means. Julius II. had now 
been succeeded on the Papal chair by Leo X. So far as 
concerned the encouragement of the various arts, the 
revival of ancient learning, and the opening up, by that 
means, to the cultivated and upper classes of society of a 
spring of rich intellectual enjoyment, Leo would have been 
just the man for the new age. But whilst actively engaged 
in these pursuits and pleasures, he remained indifferent to 
the care and the spiritual welfare of his flock, whom as 
Christ's vicar he had undertaken to feed. The frivolous 
tone of morals that ruled at the Papal see was looked 
upon as an element of the new culture. As regards the 
Christian faith, a blasphemous saying is reported of Leo, 
how profitable had been the fable of Christ. He had no 
scruples in procuring money for the new church, which, as 



THE NINETY-FIVE THESES. 



83 



he said, was to protect and glorify the bones of the holy 
Apostles, by a dirty traffic, pernicious to the soul. Mean- 
while, the popes were not ashamed to appropriate freely to 
their own needs that indulgence money, which was nomin- 
ally for the Church and for other objects, such as the war 
against the Turks. 

In order to appreciate the nature of these indulgences 
and of Luther's attack upon them, it is necessary first to 
realise more exactly the significance which the teachers of 
the Church ascribed to them. The simple statement that 
absolution or forgiveness 
of sins was sold for 
money, must in itself be 
offence enough to any 
moral Christian con- 
science ; and we can only 
wonder thai Luther pro- 
ceeded so prudently and 
gradually towards his ob- 
ject of getting rid of in- 
dulgences altogether. But 
the arguments by which 
they were explained and 
justified did not sound 
so simple or concise. 
Forgiveness of sins, it was 
maintained, must be gained by penance, namely, by the so- 
called sacrament of penance, including the acts of private con- 
fession and priestly absolution. In this the father-confessor 
promised to him who had confessed his sins, absolution for 
them, whereby his guilt was forgiven and he was freed from 
eternal punishment. A certain contrition of the heart was 
required from him, even if only imperfect, and proceeding 
perhaps solely from the fear of punishment, but which never- 
theless was deemed sufficient, its imperfection being sup- 
plied by the sacrament. But though absolved, he had still to 

<5 2 




Fig. 9.— Leo X. 
(From his Portrait by Eaphael.) 



84 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

discharge heavy burdens of temporal punishment, penances 
imposed by the Church, and chastisements which, in the re- 
mission of eternal punishment, God in His righteousness still 
laid upon him. If he failed to satisfy these penances in this 
life, he must, even if no longer in danger of hell, atone for 
the rest in the torments of the fire of purgatory. The indul- 
gence now came in to relieve him. The Church was content 
with easier tasks, as, at that time, with a donation to the 
sacred edifice at Eome. And even this was made to rest on 
a certain basis of right. The Church, it was said, had to 
dispose of a treasure of merits which Christ and the saints, 
by their good works, had accumulated before the righteous 
God, and those riches were now to be so disposed of by 
Christ's representatives, that they should benefit the buyer 
of indulgences. In this manner penances which otherwise 
would have to be endured for years were commuted into 
small donations of money, quickly paid off. The contrition 
required for the forgiveness of sins was not altogether 
ignored ; as, for instance, in the official announcements of 
indulgences, and in the letters or certificates granting 
indulgences to individuals in return for payment. But in 
those documents, as also in the sermons exhorting the 
multitude to purchase, the chief stress, so far as possible, 
was laid upon the payment. The confession, and with it 
the contrition, was also mentioned, but nothing was said 
about the personal remission of sins depending on this 
rather than on the money. Perfect forgiveness of sins was 
announced to him who, after having confessed and felt 
contrition, had thrown his contribution into the box. For 
the souls in purgatory nothing was required but money 
offered for them by the living. ' The moment the money 
tinkles in the box, the soul springs up out of purgatory.' A 
special tariff was arranged for the commission of particular 
sins, as, for example, six ducats for adultery. 

The traffic in indulgences for the building of St. Peter's 
was delegated by commission from the Pope, over a large 



THE NINETY-FIVE THESES. 85 

part of Germany, to Albert, Archbishop of Mayence and 
Magdeburg. We shall meet with this great prince of the 
Church, as now in connection with the origin of the Ke- 
formation, so during its subsequent course. Albert, the 
brother of the Elector of Brandenburg, and cousin of the 
Grand-Master of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, stood in 




Fig. 10. — The Archbishop Albert. (From Diirer's engraving.) 

1517, though only twenty- seven years old, already at the 
head of those two great ecclesiastical provinces of Germany ; 
Wittenberg also belonged to his Magdeburg diocese. Eaised 
to such an eminence and so rapidly by good fortune, he was 
filled with ambitious thoughts. He troubled himself little 
about theology. He loved to shine as the friend of the new 



86 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

Humanistic learning, especially of an Erasmus, and as 
patron of the fine arts, particularly of architecture, and to 
keep a court the splendour of which might correspond with 
his own dignity and love of art. For this his means were 
inadequate, especially as, on entering upon his Archbishopric 
of Mayence, he had had to pay, as was customary, a heavy 
sum to the Pope for the pallium given for the occasion. 
For this he had been forced to borrow thirty thousand 
gulden from the house of Fugger at Augsburg, and he found 
his aspirations incessantly crippled by want of money and 
by debts. He succeeded at last in striking a bargain with 
the Pope, by which he was allowed to keep half of the 
profits arising from the sale of indulgences, in order to 
repay the Fuggers their loan. Behind- the preacher of 
indulgences, who announced God's mercy to the paying- 
believers, stood the agents of that commercial house, who 
collected their share for their principals. The Dominican 
monk, John Tetzel, a profligate man, whom the Archbishop 
had appointed his sub-commissioner, drove the largest trade 
in this business with an audacity and a power of popular 
declamation well suited to his work. 

Contemporaries have described the lofty and well- 
ordered pomp with which such a commissioner entered on 
the performance of his exalted duties. Priests, monks, and 
magistrates, schoolmasters and scholars, men, women, and 
children, went forth in procession to meet him, with songs 
and ringing of bells, with flags and torches. They entered 
the church together amidst the pealing of the organ. In 
the middle of the church, before the altar, w 7 as erected a 
large red cross, hung with a silken banner which bore the 
Papal arms. Before the cross was placed a large iron 
chest to receive the money ; specimens of these chests are 
still shown in many places. Daily, by sermons, hymns, 
processions round the cross, and other means of attraction, 
the people were invited and urged to embrace this incom- 
parable offer of salvation. It was arranged that auricular 



THE NINETY-FIVE THESES. 



*7 




n^plaevon iRom 

^ km mm wol fdig tper&en <*^ 

Er&m^ aigmgjmcj bet c&tiifycn^&i 




Fig. 11.— Title-page of a Pamphlet written at the beginning op the Reformation, 
with an Illustration showing the Sale of Indulgences. 



88 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

confession should be taken wholesale. The main object 
was the payment, in return for which the ' contrite ' sinners 
received a letter of indulgence from the commissioner, who, 
with a significant reference to the absolute power granted 
to himself, promised them complete absolution and the good 
opinion of their fellow-men. 

We have evidence to show how Tetzel preached himself, 
and what he wished these sermons on indulgences to be 
like. Calling upon the people, he summoned all, and 
especially the great sinners, such as murderers and robbers, 
to turn to their God and receive the medicine which God, 
in his mercy and wisdom, had provided for their benefit. 
St. Stephen once had given up his body to be stoned, St. 
Lawrence his to be roasted, St. Bartholomew his to a fear- 
ful death. Would they not willingly sacrifice a little gift in 
order to obtain everlasting life ? Of the souls in purgatory 
it was said, 'They, your parents and relatives, are crying 
out to you, "We are in the bitterest torments, you could 
deliver us by giving a small alms, and yet you will not. We 
have given you birth, nourished you, and left to you our 
temporal goods ; and such is your cruelty that you, who 
might so easily make us free, leave us here to lie in the 
flames." ' 

To all who directly or indirectly, in public or in private, 
should in any way depreciate, or murmur against, or obstruct 
these indulgences, it was announced that, by Papal edict, 
they lay already by so doing under the ban of excommuni- 
cation, and could only be absolved by the Pope or by one 
of his commissioners. 

After Luther had once ventured to attack openly this 
sale of indulgences, it was admitted even by their defenders 
and the violent enemies of the Eeformer, that in those 
days ' greedy commissioners, monks and priests, had 
preached unblushingly about indulgences, and had laid 
more stress upon the money than upon confession, re- 
pentance, and sorrow.' Christian people were shocked and 



THE NINETY-FIVE THESES. 89 

scandalised at the abuse. It was asked whether indeed 
God so loved the money, that for the sake of a few pence 
He would leave a soul in everlasting torments, or why the 
Pope did not out of love empty the whole of purgatory, 
since he was willing to free innumerable souls in return for 
such a trifle as a contribution to the building of a church. 
But not one of them found it then expedient to incur the 
abuse and slander of a Tetzel by a word spoken openly 
against the gross misconduct the fruits of which were so 
important to the Pope and the Archbishop. 

Tetzel now came to the borders of the Elector of Saxony's 
dominion, and to the neighbourhood of Wittenberg. The 
Elector would not allow him to enter his territory, on 
account of so much money being taken away, and accord- 
ingly he opened his trade at Jiiterbok. Among those who 
confessed to Luther, there were some who appealed to 
letters of indulgence which they had purchased from him 
there. 

In a sermon preached as early as the summer of 1516, 
Luther had warned his congregation against trusting to 
indulgences, and he did not conceal his aversion to the 
system, whilst admitting his doubts and ignorance as to 
some important questions on the subject. He knew that 
these opinions and objections would grieve the heart of his 
sovereign ; for Frederick, who with all his sincere piety, 
still shared the exaggerated veneration of the middle ages 
for relics, and had formed a rich collection of them in the 
Church of the Castle and Convent at Wittenberg, which he 
was always endeavouring to enrich, rejoiced at the Pope's 
lavish offer of indulgences to all who at an annual exhibition 
of these sacred treasures should pay their devotions at the 
nineteen altars of this church. A few years before he had 
caused a ' Book of Eelics ' to be printed, which enumerated 
upwards of five thousand different specimens, and showed 
how they represented half a million days of indulgence. 
Luther relates how he had incurred the Elector's displeasure 



9o 



THE BREACH WITH ROME. 



by a sermon preached in bis Castle Church against indul- 
gences : he preached, however, again before the exhibition 




Fig. 12.— The Castle Church. (From the Wittenberg Book of Belies, 
1509 : the hill in the background is an addition by the artist.) 

held in February 1517. The honour and interest, more- 
over, of his university had to be considered, for that church 



THE NINETY FIVE THESES. 91 

was attached to it, the professors were also dignitaries of 
the convent, and the university benefited by the revenues of 
the foundation. 

Luther was then, as he afterwards described himself, a 
young doctor of divinity, ardent, and fresh from the forge. 
He was burning to protest against the scandal. But as yet 
he restrained himself and kept quiet. He wrote, indeed, 
on the subject to some of the bishops. Some listened to 
him graciously ; others laughed at him ; none wished to 
take any steps in the matter. 

He longed now to make known to theologians and eccle- 
siastics generally his thoughts about indulgences, his own 
principles, his own opinions and doubts, to excite public 
discussion on the subject, and to awake and maintain the 
fray. This he did by the ninety- five Latin theses or pro- 
positions which he posted on the doors of the Castle Church 
at Wittenberg, on October 31, 1517, the eve of All Saints' 
Day and of the anniversary of the consecration of the 
Church. 

These theses were intended as a challenge for disputa- 
tion. Such public disputations were then very common at 
the universities and among theologians, and they were 
meant to serve as means not only of exercising learned 
thought, but of elucidating the truth. Luther headed his 
theses as follows : — 



mtation to explain the virtue of indulgences. — In 
charity and in the endeavour to bring the truth to light, a 
disputation on the following propositions will be held at 
Wittenberg, presided over by the Eeverend Father Martin 
Luther . . . Those who are unable to attend personally 
may discuss the question with us by letter. In the name of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.' 

It was in accordance with the general custom of that 
time that, on the occasion of a high festival, particular 
acts and announcements, and likewise disputations at a 



•/ 



92 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

university, were arranged, and the doors of a collegiate 
church were used for posting such notices. 

The contents of these theses show that their author 
really had such a disputation in view. He was resolved to 
defend with all his might certain fundamental truths to 
which he firmly adhered. Some points he considered still 
within the region of dispute ; it was his wish and object to 
make these clear to himself by arguing about them with 
others. 

Kecognising the connection between the system of in- 
dulgences and the view of penance entertained by the 
Church, he starts with considering the nature of true 
Christian repentance ; but he would have this understood 
in the sense and spirit taught by Christ and the Scriptures, 
as, indeed, Staupitz had first taught it to him. He begins 
with the thesis ' Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when 
He says Eepent, desires that the whole life of the believer 
should be one of repentance.' He means, as the subsequent 
theses express it, that true inward "repentance, that sorrow 
for sin and hatred of one's own sinful self, from which 
must proceed good works and mortification of the sinful 
flesh. The Pope could only remit his sin to the penitent 
so far as to declare that God had forgiven it. 

Thus then the theses expressly declare that God forgives 
no man his sin without making him submit himself in 
humility to the priest who represents Him, and that He 
recognises the punishments enjoined by the Church in her 
outward sacrament of penance. But Luther's leading 
principles are consistently opposed to the customary an- 
nouncements of indulgences by the Church. The Pope, he 
holds, can only grant indulgences for what the Pope and 
the law of the Church have imposed ; nay, the Pope him- 
self means absolution from these obligations only, when he 
promises absolution from all punishment. And it is only 
the living against whom those punishments are directed 
which the Church's discipline of penance enjoins : nothing, 



THE N/NE TV-FIVE THESES. 93 

according to her own laws, can be imposed upon those in 
another world. 

Further on, Luther declares, ' When true repentance is 
awakened in a man, full absolution from punishment and 
sin comes to him without any letters of indulgence.' At 
the same time he says that such a man would willingly 
undergo self-imposed chastisement, nay, he would even 
seek and love it. 

Still, it is not the indulgences themselves, if understood 
in the right sense, that he wishes to be attacked, but the 
loose babble of those who sold them. Blessed, he says, be 
he who protests against this, but cursed be he who speaks 
against the truth of apostolic indulgences. He finds it 
difficult, however, to praise these to the people, and at the 
same time to teach them the true repentance of the heart. 
He would have them even taught that a Christian would do 
better by giving money to the poor than by spending it in 
buying indulgences, and that he who allows a poor man near 
him to starve draws down on himself, not indulgences, but 
the wrath of God. In sharp and scornful language he 
denounces the iniquitous trader in indulgences, and gives 
the Pope credit for the same abhorrence for the traffic that 
he felt himself. Christians must be told, he says, that if 
the Pope only knew of it, he would rather see St. Peter's 
Church in ashes, than have it built with the flesh and bones 
of his sheep. 

Agreeably with what the preceding theses had said 
about the true penitent's earnestness and willingness to 
suffer, and the temptation offered to a mere carnal sense of 
security, Luther concludes as follows : ' Away therefore V 
with all those prophets who say to Christ's people "Peace, 
peace ! " when there is no peace, but welcome to all those 
who bid them seek the Cross of Christ, not the Cross which 
bears the Papal arms. Christians must be admonished 
to follow Christ their Master through torture, death, and 
hell, and thus through much tribulation, rather than by a 



94 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

carnal feeling of false security, hope to enter the kingdom 
of heaven. 

The Catholics objected to this doctrine of salvation 
advanced by Luther, that by trusting to God's free mercy 
and by undervaluing good works, it led to moral indolence. 
But on the contrary, it was to the very unbending moral 
earnestness of a Christian conscience, which, indignant at 
the temptations offered to moral frivolity, to a deceitful 
feeling of ease in respect to sin and guilt, and to a con- 
tempt of the fruits of true morality, rebelled against the 
false value attached to this indulgence money, that these 
Theses, the germ, so to speak, of the Eeformation, owed 
their origin and prosecution. With the same earnestness 
he now for the first time publicly attacked the ecclesiastical 
power of the Papacy, in so far namely as, in his conviction, 
it invaded the territory reserved to Himself by the Heavenly 
Lord and Judge. This was what the Pope and his theolo- 
gians and ecclesiastics could least of all endure. 

On the same day that these theses were published, 
Luther sent a copy of them with a letter to the Archbishop 
Albert, his ' revered and gracious Lord and Shepherd in 
Christ.' After a humble introduction, he begged him 
most earnestly to prevent the scandalising and iniquitous 
harangues with which his agents hawked about their in- 
dulgences, and reminded him that he would have to give an 
account of the souls entrusted to his episcopal care. 

The next day he addressed himself to the people from 
the pulpit, in a sermon he had to preach on the festival of 
All Saints. After exhorting them to seek their salvation in 
God and Christ alone, and to let the consecration by the 
Church become a real consecration of the heart, he went 
on to tell them plainly, with regard to indulgences, that he 
could only absolve from duties imposed by the Church, and 
that they dare not rely on him for more, nor delay on his 
account the duties of true repentance. 



95 



CHAPTEK II. 

THE CONTEOVEESY CONCEENING INDULGENCES. 

Anyone who has heard that the great movement of the 
Eeformation in Germany, and with it the founding of the 
Evangelical Church, originated in the ninety-five theses of 
Luther, and who then reads these theses through, might 
perhaps be surprised at the importance of their results. 
They referred, in the first place, to only one particular point 
of Christian doctrine, not at all to the general fundamental 
question as to how sinners could obtain forgiveness and be 
saved, but merely to the remission of punishments connected 
with penance. They contained no positive declaration 
against the most essential elements of the Catholic theory 
of penance, or against the necessity of oral confession, or 
of priestly absolution, and such subjects ; they presupposed, 
in fact, the existence of a purgatory. Much of what they 
attacked, not one of the learned theologians of the middle 
ages or of those times had ever ventured to assert ; as, for 
instance, the notion that indulgences made the remission of 
sins to the individual complete on the part of God. More- 
over, the ruling principles of the theology of the day, which 
defended the system of indulgences, though resting mainly on 
the authority of the great Scholastic teacher Thomas Aquinas, 
were not adopted by other Scholastics, and had never been 
erected into^a dogma by any decree of the Church. Theo- 
logians before Luther, and with far more acuteness and 
penetration than he showed in his theses, had already 
assailed the whole system of indulgences. And, in regard 
to any idea on Luther's part of the effects of his theses 



96 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

extending widely in Germany, it may be noticed that not 
only were they composed in Latin, but that they dealt largely 
with Scholastic expressions and ideas, which a layman would 
find it difficult to understand. 

Nevertheless the theses created a sensation which far 
surpassed Luther's expectations. In fourteen days, as he tells 
us, they ran through the whole of Germany, and were im- 
mediately translated and circulated in German. They 
found, indeed, the soil already prepared for them, through 
the indignation long since and generally aroused by the 
shameless doings they attacked; though till then nobody, as 
Luther expresses it, had liked to bell the cat, nobody had 
dared to expose himself to the blasphemous clamour of the 
indulgence-mongers and the monks who were in league 
with them, still less to the threatened charge of heresy. 

On the other hand, the very impunity with which this 
traffic in indulgences had been maintained throughout 
German Christendom, had served to increase from day to day 
the audacity of its promoters. Ranged on the side of these 
doctrines of Thomas Aquinas, the chief mainstay of this 
trade, stood the whole powerful order of the Dominicans. 
And to this order Tetzel himself, the sub -commissioner of 
indulgences, belonged. Already other doctrines of the Pope's 
authority, of his power over the salvation of the human 
soul, and the infallibility of his decisions, had been asserted 
with ever-increasing boldness. The mediaeval writings of 
Thomas Aquinas had conspicuously tended to this result. 
And a climax had just been reached at a so-called General 
Council, which met at Rome shortly after Luther's visit 
there, and continued its sittings for several years. 

Tetzel, who hitherto had only made himself notorious 
as a preacher, or rather as a bawling mountebank, now 
answered Luther with two series of theses of his own, 
drawn up in learned scholastic form. One Conrad Wimpina, 
a theologian of the university of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 
whom the Archbishop Albert had recommended, assisted 



CONTROVERSY CONCERNING INDULGENCES. 97 

Tetzel in this work. The university of Frankfort immedi- 
ately made Tetzel doctor of theology, and thus espoused 
his theses. Three hundred Dominican monks assembled 
round Hm while he conducted an academical disputation 
upon them. The doctrines he now advanced were the 
doctrines of Thomas Aquinas, But at the same time he 
took care to make the question of the Pope's position and 
power the cardinal point at issue : he and his patrons knew 
well enough, that for Luther, who in his theses had touched 
upon this question so significantly though so briefly, this 
was the m^st fatal blow that he could deal. ' Christians 
must be taught,' he declared, ' that in all that relates to 
faith and saltation, the judgment of the Pope is absolutely 
infallible, and that all observances connected with matters 
of faith on which the Papal see has expressed itself, are 
equivalent to Christian truths, even if they are not to be 
found in Scripture.' With distinct reference to his opponent, 
but without actually mentioning him by name, he insists 
that whoever defends heretical error must be held to be ex- 
communicated, and if he fails within a given time to make 
satisfaction, incurs by right and law the most frightful 
penalties. Furthermore, he argued— and this has always 
been held up against Luther and Protestantism — that if the 
authority of the Church and Pope should not be recognised, 
every man would believe only what was pleasing to himself 
and what he found in the Bible, and thus the souls of all 
Christendom would be imperilled. 

Luther's theses now found another assailant, and one 
stronger even than Tetzel, in the person of a Dominican 
and Thomist, one Sylvester Mazolini of Prierio (Prierias), 
master of the sacred palace at Eome, and a confidant of the 
Pope. He too, like Tetzel, based his chief contention on the 
question of Papal authority, and was the first to carry that 
contention to an extreme. The Pope, he said, is the Church 
of Borne ; the Bomish Church is the Universal Christian 
Church ; whoever disputes the right of the Bomish Church 

H 



98 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

to act entirely as she may, is a heretic. In this way he 
treated as contemptuously as he could the obscure German, 
whose theses, that ' bite like a cur,' as he expressed it, he 
only wished to dismiss with all despatch. 

Another Dominican, James van Hoogstraten, prior at 
Cologne, who had already figured as the prime zealot in the 
affair about Keuchlin, which he was still prosecuting, now 
demanded, in his preface to a pamphlet on that subject, that 
Luther should be sent to the stake as a dangerous heretic. 

But a far more important, and to Luther an utterly un- 
expected opponent, appeared in the person of John Eck, pro- 
fessor at the university of Ingolstadt, and canon at Eichstadt. 
He was a man of very extensive learning in the earlier and 
later Scholastic theology of the Church ; he was a sharp- 
witted and ready controversialist, and he knew how to use his 
weapons in disputations. He was fully conscious of these 
gifts, and made a bold push to advance himself by their 
means, whilst troubling himself very little in reality about 
the high and sacred issues involved in the dispute. He 
sought to keep on friendly and useful relations with other 
circles than those of Scholastic theology, such as with 
learned Humanists, and a short time before, with Luther 
himself and his colleague Carlstadt, to whom he had been 
introduced through a jurist of Nuremberg named Scheuerl. 
Luther, after the publication of his theses, had written a 
friendly letter to Eck. What then was his surprise to find 
himself attacked by Eck in a critical reply entitled 
' Obelisks.' The tone of his remarks was as wounding, 
coarse, and vindictive as their substance was superficial. 
They aimed a well-meditated blow, by stigmatising Luther's 
propositions as Bohemian poison, mere Hussite heresy. 
Eck, when reproached for such a breach of friendship, 
declared that he had written the book for his bishop of 
Eichstadt, and not with any view of publication. 

Luther himself, loud as was his call to battle in his theses, 
had still no intention of engaging in a general contest about 



CONTROVERSY CONCERNING INDULGENCES. 99 

the leading principles of the Church. He had not yet 
realised the whole extent and bearings of the question 
about indulgences. Eeferring afterwards to the rapid circu- 
lation of his theses through Germany, and to the fame 
which his onslaught had earned him, he says, ' I did not 
relish the fame, for I myself was not aware of what there 
was in the indulgences, and the song was pitched too high 
for my voice.' People far and wide were proud of the man 
who spoke out so boldly in his theses, while the multitude 
of doctors and bishops kept silence ; but he still stood 
alone before the public, confronting the storm which he 
had aroused against himself. He did not conceal the fact, 
that now and then he felt strange and anxious about his 
position. But he had learned to take his stand singly 
and firmly on the word of Scripture, and on the truth 
which God therein revealed to him and brought home to 
his conviction. He was only the more strengthened in that 
conviction by the replies of his opponents ; for he must well 
have been amazed at their utter want of Scriptural reference 
to disprove his conclusions, and at the blind subservience 
with which they merely repeated the statements of their 
Scholastic authorities. The arrogant reply of Prierias, his 
opponent of highest rank, seemed to him particularly poor. 
In confident words Luther assures his friends of his con- 
viction that what he taught was the purest theology, that 
what he upheld and his opponents attacked, was a revela- 
tion direct from God. He knew too, that, in the words of 
St. Paul, he had to preach what to the holiest of the Jews was 
a stumbling-block, and to the wisest of the Greeks foolish- 
ness. He was none the less ready to do so, that Jesus 
Christ, his Lord, might say of him, as He said once of that 
Apostle, ' I will show him how great things he must suffer 
for my name's sake.' Luther's. enemies in the Eomish 
Church have thought to see in these words an instance of 
boundless self-assertion on the part of an individual subject. 
From henceforth Luther, while pursuing with unabated 

H 2 



100 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

zeal his active duties at the university and in the pulpit at 
Wittenberg, and taking up his pen again and again to write 
short pamphlets of a simple and edifying kind, occupied 
himself untiringly with controversial writings, with the ob- 
ject partly of defending himself against attacks, partly of 
establishing on a firm basis the principles he had set forth, 
and of further investigating and making plain the way of 
true Christian knowledge. He first addressed himself to 
German Christendom, in German, in his ' Sermon on 
Indulgences and Grace.' His inward excitement is shown 
by the vehemence and ruggedness of expression which now 
and henceforth marked his polemical writings. It recalls 
to mind the tone then commonly met with not only among 
ordinary monks, but even in the controversies of theologians 
and learned men, and in which Luther's own opponents, 
especially that high Roman theologian, had set him the 
example. In Luther we see now, throughout his whole 
method of polemics, as we shall see still more later on, a 
mighty, Vulcanic, natural power breaking forth, but always 
regulated by the humblest devotion to the lofty mission that 
his conscience has imposed upon him. Even in his most 
vehement outbursts we never fail to catch the tender 
expressions of a Christian warmth and fervour of the 
heart, and a loftiness of language corresponding to the 
sacredness of the subject. 

In the midst of these labours and controversies, Luther 
had to undertake a journey in the spring of 1518 (about 
the middle of April) to a chapter general of his Order at 
Heidelberg, where, according to the rules, a new Vicar was 
chosen after a triennial term of office. His friends feared 
the snares that his enemies might have prepared for him 
on the road. He himself did not hesitate for a moment to 
obey the call of duty. 

The Elector Frederick, who owed him at least a debt of 
gratitude for having helped to keep his territory free from 
the rapacious Tetzel, but who, both now and afterwards. 



CONTROVERSY CONCERNING INDULGENCES. 101 

conscientiously held aloof from the contest, gave proof on 
this occasion of his undiminished kindness and regard for 
him, in a letter he addressed to Staupitz. He writes as 
follows : — ' As you have required Martin Luder to attend 
a Chapter at Heidelberg, it is his wish, although we grudge 
giving him permission to leave our university, to go there 
and render due obedience. And as we are indebted to 
your suggestion for this excellent doctor of theology, in 
whom we are so well pleased, .... it is our desire that 
you will further his safe return here, and not allow him to 
be delayed.' He also gave Luther cordial letters of intro- 
duction to Bishop Laurence of Wurzburg, through whose 
town his road passed, and to the Count Palatine Wolfgang, 
at Heidelberg. From both of these, though many had 
already declaimed against him as a heretic, he met with a 
most friendly and obliging reception. 

His relations, moreover, at Heidelberg with his fellow- 
members of the Order, and, above all, with Staupitz, 
remained undo ided. Staupitz was re-elected here as 
Vicar of the Order ; the office of provincial Vicar passed from 
Luther to John Lange, of Erfurt, his intimate friend and 
fellow-thinker. The question about indulgences had not 
entered at all into the business of the chapter. But at a dis- 
putation held in the convent, according to custom, Luther 
presided, and wrote for it some propositions embodying the 
fundamental points of his doctrines concerning the sinful- 
ness and powerlessness of man, and righteousness, through 
God's grace, in Christ, and against the philosophy and 
theology of Aristotelian Scholasticism. He attracted the 
keen interest of several young inmates of the convent who 
afterwards became his coadjutors, such as John Brenz, 
Erhardt Schnepf, and Martin Butzer. They marvelled at 
his power of drawing out the meaning from the Scriptures, 
and of speaking not only with clearness and decision, but 
also with refinement and grace. Thus his journey served 
to promote at once his reputation and his influence. 



102 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

On his return to Wittenberg on May 15, after an 
absence of five weeks, he hastened to complete a detailed 
explanation in Latin of the contents of his theses, under 
the title of ' Solutions,' the greatest and most important 
work that he published at this period, of the contest. 

The most valuable fruit of the controversy so far as 
regards Luther and his later work, and evidence of which 
is given in these ' Solutions,' was the advance he had 
made, and had been compelled to make, in the course of 
his own self-reasoning and researches. Xew questions 
presented themselves : the inward connection of the truth 
became gradually manifest : new results forced themselves 
upon him : his anxiety to solve his difficulties still con- 
tinued. 

Luther in his theses, when speaking of the call of 
Jesus to repentance, had never indeed admitted that the 
sacrament of penance enjoined by the Church, with 
auricular confession and the penances and satisfactions 
imposed by the priest, was based on God's command or the 
authority of the Bible. He now openly acknowledged and 
declared that these ecclesiastical acts were not enjoined by 
Christ at all, but solely by the Pope and the Church. 

The contest about the indulgences granted by the Pope 
in respect of these acts, opened up now the doctrine of the 
so-called treasures of the Church, on which the Pope drew for 
his bounty. Luther, while conceding to the Pope the right 
of dispensing indulgences hi the sense understood by himself, 
guarded himself against admitting that the merits of Christ 
constituted that treasure, and so should be disposed of by 
the Pope in this manner : the dispensation of indulgences 
rested simply on the Papal power of the keys. It was 
now objected to him that herein he was going counter to 
an express and duly recorded declaration of a pope, Cle- 
ment VI., namely, that the merits of Christ were undoubtedly 
to be dispensed in indulgences. Luther, who in his theses 
against the abuse of indulgences had abstained as yet 



CONTROVERSY CONCERNING INDULGENCES. 103 

from propounding anything which might be inconsistent 
with the ascertained meaning of the Pope, now insisted 
without hesitation on this contradiction. That Papal pro- 
nouncement, he declared, did not bear the character of a 
dogmatic decree, and a distinction was to be drawn between 
a decree of the Pope and its acceptance by the Church 
through a Council. 

How then, Luther proceeded to inquire, should the 
Christian obtain forgiveness of sin, reconciliation with God, 
righteousness before God, peace and holiness in God? 
And in answering this question he reverted to the key-note 
of his doctrine of salvation, which he had begun to preach 
before the contest about indulgences commenced. He had 
already declared that salvation came through faith; in 
other words, through heartfelt trust in God's mercy, as 
announced by the Bible, and in the Saviour Christ. How 
was that consistent with the acts of ecclesiastical penance, 
such as absolution in particular, which must be obtained 
from the priest ? Luther now declared that God would 
assuredly allow his offer of forgiveness to be conveyed to 
those who longed for it, by His commissioned servant of 
the Church, the priest, but that the assurance of such for- 
giveness must lean simply on the promise of God, by 
virtue and on behalf of Whom the priest performed his 
office. And at the same time he declared that this promise 
could be conveyed to a troubled Christian by any brother- 
Christian, and that full forgiveness would be granted to 
him if he had faith. No enumeration of particular sins 
was necessary for that end; it was enough if the repentant 
and faithful yearning for the word of mercy was made 
known to the priest or brother from whom the message of 
comfort was sought. Hence it followed, on the one hand, 
that priestly absolution and the sacrament availed nothing 
to the receiver unless he turned with inward faith to his 
God and Saviour, received with faith the word spoken to 
him, and through that word let himself be raised to greater 



104 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

faith. It followed also, on the other hand, that a penitent 
and faithful Christian, holding fast to that word, to whom 
the priest should arbitrarily refuse the absolution he 
looked for, could, in spite of such refusal, participate in 
God's forgiveness to the full. Herewith was broken at 
once the most powerful bond by which the dominant 
Church enslaved the souls to the organs of her hierarchy 
Luther has humbled man to the lowest before God, through 
Whose grace alone the sinner, in meek and believing 
trustfulness, can be saved. But in God and through this 
grace he teaches him to be free and certain of salvation. 
Christ, he says, has not willed that man's salvation should 
lie in the hand or at the pleasure of a man. 

As for the outward acts and punishments which the 
Church and the Pope imposed, he did not seek to abolish 
them. In this external province at least he recognised in 
the Pope a power originating direct from God. Here, in 
his opinion, the Christian was bound to put up with even 
an abuse of power and the infliction of unjust punish- 
ment. 

The whole contest turned ultimately on the question as 
to who should determine disputes about the truth, and where 
to seek the highest standard and the purest source of Chris- 
tian verity. Gradually at first, and manifestly with many 
inward struggles on the part of Luther, his views and prin- 
ciples gained clearness and consistency. Even within the 
Catholic Church the doctrine as to the highest authority to 
be recognised in questions of belief and conduct was by no 
means so firmly established as is frequently represented by 
both Protestants and Eoman Catholics. The doctrine of the 
infallibility of the Pope, and of the absolute authority attach- 
ing thereby to his decisions, however confidently asserted by 
the admirers of Aquinas and accepted by the Popes, was not 
erected into a dogma of the Eoman Catholic Church until 
1870. The other theory, that even the Pope can err, and 
that the supreme decision rests with a General Council, had 



CONTROVERSY CONCERNING INDULGENCES. 105 

been maintained by theologians whom, at the same time, no 
Pope had ever ventured to treat as heretics. It was on the 
ground of this latter theory that the University of Paris, 
then the first university in Europe, had just appealed from 
the Pope to a General Council. In Germany opinions were 
on the whole divided between this and the theory of Papal 
absolutism. Again, the view that neither the decisions of a 
Council nor of a Pope were ipso facto infallible, but that an 
appeal therefrom lay to a council possibly better informed, 
had already been advanced with impunity by writers of the 
fifteenth century. The only point as to which no doubt 
was expressed, was that the decisions of previous General 
Councils, acknowledged also by the Pope, contained abso- 
lutely pure Divine truth, and that the Christian Universal 
Church could never fall into error; but even then, with 
reference to this Church, the question still remained as to 
who or what was her true and final representative. 

Luther now followed what he found to be the teaching 
of the Bible, so far as that teaching presented itself to his 
own independent and conscientious research, and as, traced 
home in the New Testament and especially in the Epistles 
of St. Paul, it shaped itself to his perception. But for all this, 
he would not yet abandon his agreement with the Church 
of which he was a member. The very man whom Eck 
had branded as full of ' Bohemian poison,' complained of 
the Bohemian Brethren or Moravians for exalting themselves 
in their ignorance above the rest of Christendom. A Thomist 
indeed, who to him was only a Scholastic among others, he 
fearlessly opposed ; but still we find no expression of a 
thought that the Church, assembled at a General Council, had 
ever erred, nor even that any future Council could pronounce 
an erroneous decision upon the present points in dispute. 
Nay, he awaits the decision of such a Council against the 
charges of heresy already brought against him, though 
without ever admitting his readiness, if such a Council 
should assemble, to submit beforehand and unconditionally 



106 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

to its decision, whatever it might be. Above and before any 
such decision he held firm to the authority of his own 
conviction : his conscience, he said, would not allow him to 
yield from that resolve ; he was not standing alone in this 
contest, but with him stood the truth, together with all 
those who shared his doubts as to the virtue of indulgences. 
Still, while rejecting the doctrine of the infallibility of 
the Popes, it was a hard matter for Luther to reproach them 
also with actual error in their decisions. We have seen 
how necessity forced him to do so in the case of Clement YI. 
Towards the existing Head of the Church he desired to 
remain, as far as possible, hi concord and subjection. It 
was not for mere appearance' sake, that in his ninety-five 
theses he represented his own view of indulgences as being 
also that of the Pope. He hoped, at all events, and wished 
with all his heart that it was so ; and later on, towards the 
close of his life, he tells us how confidently he had cherished 
the expectation that the Pope would be his patron hi the 
war against the shameless vendors of indulgences. Even 
after those hopes had failed, he spoke of Leo X. with respect 
as a man of good disposition and an educated theologian, 
whose only misfortune was that he lived in an atmosphere 
of corruption and in a vicious age. He was none the less 
assured of his Divine credentials as the supreme earthly 
Shepherd of Christendom, and the depositary of all canonical 
power. The duty of humility and obedience, impressed on 
him to excess as a monk, must, no less than the fear of the 
possible dangers and troubles in store for himself and his 
Christian brethren, have made Luther shrink from the 
thought of having actually to testify and fight against him. 
He ventured to dedicate his ' Solutions ' to the Pope him- 
self. The letter of May 30, 1518, in which he did this, 
shows the peculiar, anomalous, and untenable position in 
which he now found himself placed. He is horrified, he 
says, at the charges of heresy and schism brought against 
himself. He who would much prefer to live in peace, had no 



CONTROVERSY CONCERNING INDULGENCES. 107 

wish to set up any dogmas in his theses, provoked as they 
were by a public scandal, but simply in Christian zeal, or, 
as others might have it, in youthful ardour, to invite men 
to a disputation, and his present desire was to publish his 
explanation of them under the patronage and protection of 
the Pope himself. But at the same time he declares that 
his conscience was innocent and untroubled, and he adds 
with emphatic brevity, ' Eetract I cannot.' He concludes by 
humbly casting himself at the Pope's feet with the words, 
* Give me life or death, accept or reject me as you please.' 
He will recognise the Papal voice as that of the Lord Jesus 
Himself. He will, if worthy of death, not flinch from it. 
But that declaration of his, which he could not retract, must 
stand. 



io8 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 



CHAPTEE III. 

LUTHER AT AUGSBURG BEFORE CAIETAN. APPEAL 
TO A COUNCIL. 

The task that Luther had now undertaken lay heavy upon 
his soul. He was sincerely anxious, whilst fighting for the 
truth, to remain at peace with his Church, and to serve her 
by the struggle. Pope Leo, on the contrary, as was consist- 
ent with his whole character, treated the matter at first very 
lightly, and when it threatened to become dangerous, 
thought only how, by means of his Papal power, to make 
the restless German monk harmless. 

Two expressions of his in these early days of the contest 
are recorded. ■ Brother Martin,' he said, ' is a man of a 
very fine genius, and this outbreak the mere squabble of 
envious monks ; ' and again, ' It is a drunken German who 
has written the theses ; he will think differently about them 
when sober.' Three months after the theses had appeared, 
he ordered the Vicar- General of the Augustinians to ' quiet 
down the man,' hoping still to extinguish easily the flame. 
The next step was to institute a tribunal for heretics at 
Kome, for Luther's trial : what its judgment would be was 
patent from the fact that the single theologian of learning 
among the judges was Sylvester Prierias. Before this 
tribunal Luther was cited on August 7 ; within sixty days 
he was to appear there at Borne. Friend and foe could 
well feel certain that they would look in vain for his return. 

Papal influence, meanwhile, had been brought to bear on 
the Elector Frederick, to induce him not to take the part 
of Luther, and the chief agent chosen for working on the 



LUTHER AT AUGSBURG BEFORE CAIETAN 109 

Elector and the Emperor Maximilian was the Papal legate, 
Cardinal Thomas Yio of Gaeta, called Caietan, who had 
made his appearance in Germany. The University of 
Wittenberg, on the other hand, interposed on behalf of 
their member, whose theology was popular there, and whose 
biblical lectures attracted crowds of enthusiastic hearers. 
He had just been joined at Wittenberg by his fellow- 
professor Philip Melancthon, then only twenty-one years 
old, but already in the first rank of Greek scholars, and the 
bond of friendship was now formed which lasted through 
their lives. The university claimed that Luther should at 
least be tried in Germany. 

Luther expressed the same wish through Spalatin to 
his sovereign. He now also answered publicly the attack 
of Prierias upon his theses, and declared not only that a 
Council alone could represent the Church, but that even 
a decree of Council might err, and that an Act of the 
Church was no final evidence of the truth of a doctrine. 
Being threatened with excommunication, he preached a 
sermon on the subject, and showed how a Christian, even 
if under the ban of the Church, or excluded from outward 
communion with her, could still remain in true inward 
communion with Christ and His believers, and might then 
see in his excommunication the noblest merit of his own. 

The Pope, meanwhile, had passed from his, previous 
state of haughty complacency to one of violent haste. 
Already, on August 23, thus long before the sixty days had 
expired, he demanded the Elector to deliver up this ' child 
of the devil,' who boasted of his protection, to the legate, 
to bring away with him. This is clearly shown by two 
private briefs from the Pope, of August 23 and 25, the one 
addressed to the legate, the other to the head of all the 
Augustinian convents in Saxony, as distinguished from the 
Vicar of those congregations, Staupitz, who already was 
looked on with suspicion at Eome. These briefs instructed 
both men to hasten the arrest of the heretic ; his adherents 



no THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

were to be secured with hirn, and every place where he was 
tolerated laid under the interdict. So unheard of seemed 
this conduct of the Pope, that Protestant historians would 
not believe in the genuineness of the briefs ; but we shall 
soon see how Caietan himself refers to the one in his 
possession. 

Other and general relations, interests, and movements 
of the ecclesiastical and political life of the German nation 
now began to exercise an influence, direct or indirect, upon 
the history of Luther and the development of the struggles 
of the Keformation, and even caused the Pope himself to 
moderate his conduct. 

Whilst questions of the deepest kind about the means 
of salvation, and the grounds and rules of Christian truth, 
had been opened up for the first time by Luther during the 
contest about indulgences, the abuses, encroachments, and 
acts of tyranny committed by the Pope on the temporal 
domain of the Church, and closely affecting the political 
and social life of the people, had long been the subject of 
bitter complaints and vigorous remonstrances throughout 
Germany. These complaints and remonstrances had been 
raised by princes and states of the Empire, who would not 
be silenced by any theories or dogmas about the Divine 
authority and infallibility of the Pope, nor crushed by any 
mere sentence of excommunication. And in raising them 
they had made no question of the Divine right of the 
Papacy. Was it not natural that, in the indignation 
excited by their wrongs, they should turn to the man who 
had laid the axe to the root of the tree which bore such 
fruit, and at least consider the possibility of profiting by 
his work ? Luther, on his part, showed at first a singularly 
small acquaintance with the circumstances of their com- 
plaints, and seemed hardly aware of the loud protests 
raised so long on this subject at the Diets. But with the 
question of indulgences the field of his experience broadened 
in this respect. The care he evinced in this matter for the 



LUTHER AT AUGSBURG BEFORE CATETAJV. in 

care of souls and true Christian morality made him the 
ally of all those who were alarmed at the vast export of 
money to Kome, about which he had already said in his 
theses that the Christian sheep were being regularly fleeced. 

In another respect, also, the ecclesiastical policy of the 
Papal see was closely interwoven with the political condition 
and history of Germany. If in theory the Pope claimed to 
control and confirm the decrees even of the civil power, in 
practice he at least attempted to assert and maintain an 
omnipresent influence. And with regard to Germany it 
was all-important to him that the Empire should not 
become so powerful as to endanger his authority in general 
and his territorial sovereignty in Italy. However loftily 
the Popes in their briefs proclaimed their immutable rights, 
derived from God, and their plenary power, and took care 
to let theologians and jurists advance such pretensions, 
they understood clearly enough in their practical conduct 
to adjust those relations to the rules of political or diplo- 
matic necessity. 

In the summer of 1518 a Diet was held at Augsburg, 
at which the Papal legate attended. The Pope was anxious 
to obtain its consent to the imposition of a heavy tax 
throughout the Empire, to be applied ostensibly for the war 
against the Turks, but alleged to be wanted in reality for 
entirely other objects. The Emperor Maximilian, now old 
and hastening to his end, was endeavouring to secure the 
succession of his grandson Charles, and Caietan's chief 
task was to exert his influence with Maximilian and the 
Elector Frederick to bring Luther into their disfavour. 
The Archbishop Albert, who had been hit so hard by 
Luther's attack on the traffic in indulgences, was solemnly 
proclaimed Cardinal by order of the Pope. 

Of Maximilian it might fairly have been expected that, 
after his many experiences and contests with the Popes, he 
would at least protect Luther from the worst, however un- 
likely it might be that he should entertain the idea of effect* 



ii2 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

ing, by his help, a great reform in the National Church. \ 
He did indeed express his wish to Pfeffinger, a counsellor of 
the Elector, that his prince should take care of the monk, 
as his services might some day be wanted. But he supported 
the Pope in the matter of the tax, and hoped to gain him 
for his own political ends. He opposed Luther also in his 
attack on indulgences, on the ground that it endangered the 
Church, and that he was resolved to uphold the action taken 
by the Pope. 

This demand for a tax, however, was received with the 
utmost disfavour both by the Diet and the Empire ; and a 
long-cherished bitterness of feeling now found expression. 
An anonymous pamphlet was circulated, from the pen of 
one Fischer, a prebendary of Wiirzburg, which bluntly de- 
clared that the avaricious lords of Piome only wished to 
cheat the ' drunken Germans,' and that the real Turks were 
to be looked for in Italy. This pamphlet reached Wittenberg 
and fell into the hands of Luther, whom now for the first 
time we hear denouncing ' Eoman cunning,' though he only 
charged the Pope himself with allowing his grasping 
Florentine relations to deceive him. The Diet seized the 
opportunity offered by this demand for a tax, to bring up 
a whole list of old grievances ; the large sums drawn from 
German benefices by the Pope under the name of annates, 
or extorted under other pretexts ; the illegal usurpation of 
ecclesiastical patronage in Germany, the constant infringe- 
ment of concordats, and so on. The demand itself was 
refused, and in addition to this, an address was presented to 
the Diet from the bishop and clergy of Liege, inveighing 
against the lying, thieving, avaricious conduct of the 
Komish minions, in such sharp and violent tones that 
Luther, on reading it afterwards when printed, thought it 
only a hoax, and not really an episcopal remonstrance. 

This was reason enough why Caietan, to avoid in- 
creasing the excitement, should not attempt to lay hands 
on the Wittenberg opponent of indulgences. The Elector 



LUTHER AT AUGSBURG BEFORE CAJETAN. 113 

Frederick, from whose hands Caietan would have to demand 
Luther, was one of the most powerful and personally 
respected princes of the Empire, and his influence was es- 
pecially important in view of the election of a new Emperor. 
This prince went now in person to Caietan on Luther's be- 
half, and Caietan promised him, at the very time that the 
brief was on its way to him from Eome, that he would hear 
Luther at Augsburg, treat him with fatherly kindness, and 
let him depart in safety. 

Luther accordingly was sent to Augsburg. It was an 
anxious time for himself and his friends when he had to 
leave for that distant place, where the Elector , u with all his 
care, could not employ any physical means for his protection, 
and to stand accused as a heretic before that Papal legate 
who, from his own theological principles, was bound to 
condemn him, Caietan being a zealous Thomist like Prierias, 
•and already notorious as a champion of indulgences and 
Papal absolutism. ' My thoughts on the way,' said Luther 
afterwards, ' were now I must die ; and I often lamented 
the disgrace I should be to my dear parents.' 

He went thither in humble garb and manner. He made 
his way on foot till within a short distance of Augsburg, 
when illness and weakness overcame him, and he was 
forced to proceed by carriage. Another younger monk of 
Wittenberg accompanied him, his pupil Leonard Baier. 
At Nuremberg he was joined by his friend Link, who held 
an appointment there as preacher. From him he borrowed 
a monk's frock, his own being too bad for Augsburg. He 
arrived here on October 7. 

The surroundings he now entered, and the proceedings 
impending over him, were wholly novel and unaccustomed. 
But he met with men who received him with kindness and 
consideration ; several of them were gentlemen of Augsburg 
favourable to him, especially the respected patrician, Dr. 
Conrad Peutinger, and two counsellors of the Elector. 
They advised him to behave with prudence, and to observe 



ii4 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

carefully all the necessary forms, to which as yet he was 
a stranger. 

Luther at once announced his arrival to Caietan, who 
was anxious to receive him without delay. His friends, 
however, kept him back until they had obtained a written 
safe-conduct from the Emperor, who was then hunting in 
the environs. In the meantime, a distinguished friend 
of Caietan, one Urbanus of Serralonga, tried to persuade 
him, in a flippant, and, as Luther thought, a downright 
Italian manner, to come forward and simply pronounce 
six letters, — Reroco — I retract. Urbanus asked him with a 
smile if he thought his sovereign would risk his country for 
his sake. "' God forbid ! ' answered Luther. ' Where then 
do you mean to take refuge ? ' he went on to ask him. 
' Under Heaven,' was Luther's reply. 

To Melancthon Luther wrote as follows : ' There is no 
news here, except that the town is full of talk about me, 
and everybody wants to see the man who, like a second 
Herostratus, has kindled such a flame. Eemain a man as 
you are, and instruct the youth aright. I go to be sacrificed 
for them and for you, if God so will. For I will rather die, 
and, what is the hardest fate, lose for ever the sweet inter- 
course with you, than revoke anything that it was right for 
me to say.' 

On October 11 Luther received the letter of safe- 
conduct, and the next day he appeared before Caietan. 
Humbly, as he had been advised, he prostrated himself 
before the representative of the Pope, who received him 
graciously and bade him rise. 

The Cardinal addressed him civilly, and with a courtesy 
Luther was not accustomed to meet with from his opponents; 
but he immediately demanded him, in the name and by 
command of the Pope, to retract his errors, and promise in 
future to abstain from them and from everything that might 
disturb the peace of the Church. He pointed out, in par- 
ticular, two errors in his theses ; namely, that the Church's 



LUTHER AT AUGSBURG BEFORE CAIETAN. 115 

treasure of indulgences did not consist of the merits of Christ, 
and that faith on the part of the recipient was necessary 
for the efficacy pi the sacrament. With respect to the 
second point, the religious principles upon which Luther 
based his doctrine were altogether strange and unintelligible 
to the Scholastic standpoint of Caietan ; mere tittering and 
laughter followed Luther's observations, and he was required 
to retract this thesis unconditionally. The first point 
settled the question of Papal authority. On this, the 
Cardinal-legate took his chief stand on the express declara- 
tion of Pope Clement : he could not believe that Luther 
would venture to resist a Papal bull, and thought he had 
probably not read it. He read him a vigorous lecture of 
his own on the paramount authority of the Pope over 
Council, Church, and Scripture. As to any argument, 
however, about the theses to be retracted, Caietan refused 
from the first to engage in it, and undoubtedly he went 
further in that direction than he originally desired or 
intended. His sole wish was, as he said, to give fatherly 
correction, and with fatherly friendliness to arrange the 
matter. But in reality, says Luther, it was a blunt, naked, 
unyielding display of power. Luther could only beg from 
him further time for consideration. 

Luther's friends at Augsburg, and Staupitz, who had 
just arrived there, now attempted to divert the course of 
these proceedings, to collect other decisions of importance 
bearing on the subject, and to give him the opportunity of 
a public vindication. Accompanied therefore by several 
jurists friendly to his cause, and by a notary and Staupitz, 
he laid before the legate next day a short and formal state- 
ment of defence. He could not retract unless convicted 
of error, and to all that he had said he must hold as 
being Catholic truth. Nevertheless he was only human, 
and therefore fallible, and he was willing to submit to a 
legitimate decision of the Church. He offered, at the same 
time, publicly to justify his theses, and he was ready to 

1 2 



n6 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

hear the judgment of the learned doctors of Basle, Freiburg, 
Louvain, and even Paris upon them. Caietan with a smile 
dismissed Luther and his proposals, but consented to re- 
ceive a more detailed reply in writing to the principal points 
discussed on the previous day. 

On the morrow, October 14, Luther brought his reply 
to the legate. But in this document also he insisted clearly 
and resolutely from the commencement on those very prin- 
ciples which his opponents regarded as destructive of all 
ecclesiastical authority and of the foundations of Christian 
belief. He spoke with crucial emphasis of the trouble he 
had taken to interpret the words of Pope Clement in a 
Scriptural sense. The Papal decrees might err, and be at 
variance with Holy Writ. Even the Apostle Peter himself 
had once to be reproved (Galat. ii. 11 sqq.) for ' walking not 
uprightly according to the truth of the gospel ; ' surely 
then his successor was not infallible. Every faithful 
believer in Christ was superior to the Pope, if he could 
show better proofs and grounds of his belief. Still he 
entreated Caietan to intercede with Leo X., that the latter 
might not harshly thrust out into darkness his soul, which 
was seeking for the light. But he repeated that he could do 
nothing against his conscience : one must obey God rather 
than man, and he had the fullest confidence that he had 
Scripture on his side. Caietan, to whom he delivered this 
reply in person, once more tried to persuade him. They 
fell into a lively and vehement argument ; but Caietan cut 
it short with the exclamation ' Bevoke.' In the event of 
Luther not revoking or submitting to judgment at Borne, 
he threatened him and all his friends with excommunication, 
and whatever place he might go to with an interdict ; he 
had a mandate from the Pope to that effect already in his 
hands. He then dismissed him with the words, ' Bevoke, 
or do not come again into my presence.' 

Nevertheless he spoke in quite a friendly manner after 
this to Staupitz, urging him to try his best to convert 



LUTHER AT 4-UGSBURG BEFORE CAIETAN. 117 

Luther, whom he wished well. Luther, however, wrote the 
same day to his friend Spalatin, who was with the Elector, 
and to his friends at Wittenberg, telling them that he had 
refused to yield. The legate, he said, had behaved with all 
friendliness of manner to Staupitz in his affair, but neither 
Staupitz nor himself trusted the Italian when out of sight. 
If Caietan should use force against him, he would publish 
the written reply he gave him. Caietan might call himself 
a Thomist, but he was a muddle-headed, ignorant theologian 
and Christian, and as clumsy in giving judgment in the mat- 
ter as a donkey with a harp. Luther added further that 
an appeal would be drawn up for him in the form best 
fitted to the occasion. He further hinted to his Wittenberg 
friends at the possibility of his having to go elsewhere 
in exile; indeed, his friends already thought of taking him 
to Paris, where the university still rejected the doctrine 
of Papal absolutism. He concluded this letter by saying 
that he refused to become a heretic by denying that which 
had made him a Christian ; sooner than do that, he would 
be burned, exiled, or cursed. 

The appeal of which Luther here spoke, was ' from the 
Pope ill-informed to the same when better informed.' On 
October 1^ he submitted it, formally prepared, to a public 
notary. While Staupitz and Link, warned to consult their 
personal safety, and despairing of any good result, left 
Augsburg, Luther still remained there. He even addressed 
on October 17 a letter to Caietan, conceding to him the 
utmost he thought possible. Moved, as he said, by the 
persuasions of his dear father Staupitz and his brother 
Link, he offered to let the whole question of indulgences 
rest, if only that which drove him to this tragedy were 
put a stop to ; he confessed also to having been too violent 
and disrespectful in dispute. In after years he said to his 
friends, when referring to this concession, that God had 
never allowed him to sink deeper than when he had yielded 
so much. The next day, however, he gave notice of his 



n8 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

appeal to the legate, and told him he did not wish longer to 
waste his time in Augsburg. To this letter he received no 
answer. 

Luther waited, however, till the 20th. He and his 
Augsburg patrons began to suspect whether measures had 
not already been taken to detain him. They therefore had 
a small gate in the city wall opened in the night, and sent 
with him an escort well acquainted with the road. Thus 
he hastened away, as he himself described it, on a hard- 
trotting hack, in a simple monk's frock, with only knee- 
breeches, without boots or spurs, and unarmed. On the 
first day he rode eight miles, as far as the little town of 
Monheim. As he entered in the evening an inn and dis- 
mounted in the stable, he was unable to stand from fatigue, 
and fell down instantly among the straw. He travelled 
thus on horseback to Wittenberg, where he arrived well 
and joyful, on the anniversary of his ninety-five theses. He 
had heard on the way of the Pope's brief to Caietan, but 
he refused to think it could be genuine. His appeal, mean- 
while, was delivered to the Cardinal at Augsburg, who had 
it posted by his notary on the doors of the cathedral. 

From Augsburg Luther was followed by a letter from 
Caietan to the Elector, full of bitter complaints agamst 
him. He had formed, he said, the highest hopes of his 
spiritual recovery, and had been grievously disappointed in 
him ; the Elector, for his own honour and conscience' sake, 
must now either send him to Eome or, at least, expel him 
from his territory, since measures of fatherly kindness 
had failed to make him acknowledge his error. Frederick, 
after waiting four weeks, returned a quiet answer, showing 
how the conduct of Luther quite agreed with his own view 
of the matter. He would have expected that no recantation 
would have been required of Luther till the matter in 
dispute had been satisfactorily examined and explained. 
There were a number of learned men, also, at foreign 
universities, from whom he could not yet have learned with 



LUTHER AT AUGSBURG BEFORE CAIETAN. 119 

certainty that Luther's doctrine was unchristian ; while, tc 
say the least, it was chiefly those whose personal and 
financial interests were affected by it that had become his 
opponents. He would propose therefore that the judgment 
of several universities should be obtained, and have the 
matter disputed at a safe place. Luther, however, to whom 
the Elector showed this letter, at once declared himself 
ready to go into exile, but would not be deterred from publish- 
ing new declarations or taking further steps. 

He had a report of his conference with Caietan printed, 
with a, justification of himself to the readers. And in this 
he advanced propositions against the Papacy which entirely 
shook its whole foundation. Already, in the solutions to 
his theses, he had incidentally, and without attracting 
further notice by the remark, spoken of a time when the 
Papacy had not yet acquired supremacy over the Universal 
Church, thereby contradicting what the Eomish Church 
maintained and had made into a 'dogma, namely, that the 
Papal see possessed this primacy by original institution 
through Christ, and by means of immutable Divine right. 
He now expressed this opinion as a positive proposition 
The Papal monarchy, he declared, was only a Divine institu- 
tion in the sense in which every temporal power, advanced 
by the progress of historical development, might be called 
so also. ' The kingdom of God cometh not with observation.' 

Without waiting for an answer direct from Eome, 
Luther now abandoned all thoughts of success with Leo X. 
On November 28 he formally and solemnly appealed from 
the Pope to a General Christian Council. By so doing he 
anticipated the sentence of excommunication which he was 
daily expecting. With Eome he had broken for ever, unless 
she were to sui render her claims and acquisitions of more 
than a thousand years. 

After once the first restraints of awe were removed with 
which Luther had regarded the Papacy, behind and beyond 
the matter of the indulgences, and he had learned to know 



120 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

the Papal representative at Augsburg, and made a stand 
against his demands and menaces, and escaped from his 
dangerous clutches, he enjoyed for the first time the fearless 
consciousness of freedom. He took a wider survey around 
him, and saw plainly the deep corruption and ungodliness 
of the powers arrayed against him. His mind was impelled 
forward with more energy as his spirit for the fight was 
stirred within him. Even the prospect that he might have 
to fly, and the uncertainty whither his flight could be, did 
not daunt or deter him. His thought was how he could 
throw himself with more freedom into the struggle, if no 
longer hampered by any obligations to his prince and his 
university. Writing at that time to his friend Link, to 
inform him of his new publications and his appeal, he 
invited his opinion as to whether he was not right in 
saying that the Antichrist of whom St. Paul speaks (2 Thess. 
ii.), ruled at the Papal court. ' My pen,' he went on to 
say, ' is already giving birth to something much greater. 
I know not whence these thoughts come. The work, as 
far as I can see, has hardly yet begun, so little reason have 
the great men at Eome for hoping it is finished.' Again, 
while informing Spalatin, through whom the Elector always 
urged him to moderation, of new Papal edicts and regula- 
tions aimed against him, he declared, ' The more those 
Komish grandees rage and meditate the use of force, the 
less do I fear them. All the more free shall I become to 
fight against the serpents of Eome. I am prepared for all, 
and await the judgment of God.' 

He was really prepared for exile or flight at any moment. 
At Wittenberg his friends were alarmed by rumours of 
designs on the part of the Pope against his life and liberty, 
and insisted on his being placed in safety. Flight to France 
was continually talked of ; had he not followed in his appeal 
a precedent set by the university of Paris ? We certainly 
cannot see how he could safely have been conveyed thither, 
or where, indeed, any other and safer place could have been 



LUTHER AT AUGSBURG BEFORE CAIETAN. 121 

found for him. Some urged that the Elector himself should 
take him into custody and keep him in a place of safety, 
and then write to the legate that he held him securely in 
confinement and was in future responsible for him. Luther 
proposed this to Spalatin, and added, ' I leave the decision 
of this matter to your discretion; I am in the hands of 
God and of my friends.' The Elector himself, anxious also 
m this respect, arranged early in December a confidential 
interview between Luther and Spalatin at the Castle of 
Lichtenberg. He also, as Luther reported to Staupitz, 
wished that Luther had some other place to be in, but he 
advised him against going away so hastily to France. His 
own wish and counsel, however, he refrained as yet from 
making known. Luther declared that at all events, if a 
ban of excommunication were to come from Eome, he would 
not remain longer at Wittenberg. On this point also the 
prince kept secret his resolve. 



122 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG, WITH IP 
RESULTS. 

The rumours of the dangers that threatened Luther from 
Eome had a good foundation. A new agent from there 
had now arrived in Germany, the Papal chamberlain, 
Charles von Miltitz. 

His errand was designed to remove the chief obstacle to 
summoning the Wittenberg heretic to Eome, or imprison- 
ing him there, namely, the protection afforded him by his 
sovereign. Miltitz was of a noble Saxon family, himself a 
Saxon subject by birth, and a friend of the Electoral court. 
He brought with him a high token of favour for the Elector. 
The latter had formerly expressed a wish to receive the 
golden rose ; a symbol solemnly consecrated by the Pope 
himself, and bestowed by his ambassadors on princely per- 
sonages to this day, for services rendered to the Church or 
the Papal see. The bearer of this decoration was Miltitz, 
and on October 24, 1518, he was furnished with a whole 
armful of Papal indulgences. 

Above all, he took with him two letters of Leo X. to 
Frederick. The Elector, his beloved son, so ran the first 
missive, was to receive the most holy rose, anointed with the 
sacred chrism, sprinkled with scented musk, consecrated 
with the Apostolic blessing, a gift of transcendent worth and 
the symbol of a deep mystery, in remembrance and as a pledge 
of the Pope's paternal love and singular good- will, conveyed 
through an ambassador specially appointed by the Pope, 
and charged with particular greetings on that behalf &c. &c. 



MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 123 

Such a costly gift, proffered him by the Church through her 
Pontiff, was intended to manifest her joy at the redemption 
of mankind by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and the 
rose was an appropriate symbol of the quickening and 
refreshing body of our Eedeemer. These high-sounding 
and long-winded expressions showed very plainly the real 
object of the Pope. The divine fragrance of this flower was 
so to permeate the inmost heart of Frederick, the ' beloved 
son,' that he being filled with it, might with pious mind 
receive and cherish in his noble breast those matters which 
Miltitz would explain to him, and whereof the second brief 
made mention ; and thus the more fervently comprehend 
the Pope's holy and pious longing, agreeably to the hope he 
placed in him. The other letter, however, after referring 
to the call for aid against the Turks, goes on to speak of 
Luther. From Satan himself came this son of perdition, 
who was preaching notorious heresy, and that chiefly in 
Frederick's own land. Inasmuch as this diseased sheep 
must not be suffered to infect the heavenly flock, and as 
the honour and conscience of the Elector also must needs 
be stained by his presence, Miltitz was commissioned to 
take measures against him and his associates, and Frederick 
was exhorted in the name of the Lord to assist him with his 
authority and favour. 

Papal instructions in writing to the same effect were 
given to Miltitz for Spalatin, as Frederick's private secretary, 
and for Degenhard Pfefnnger, a counsellor of the Elector. 
To Spalatin in particular, the most trusted adviser of 
Frederick in religious matters, it was represented, how 
horrible was the heretical audacity of this ' son of Satan,' 
and how he imperilled the good name of the Elector. In 
like manner the chief magistrate of Wittenberg was re- 
quired by letter to give assistance to Miltitz, and enable 
him to execute freely and unhindered the Pope's commands 
against the heretic Luther, who came of the devil. Miltitz 
took with him similar injunctions for a number of other 



124 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

towns in Germany, to ensure safe passage for himself and 
his prisoner to Borne, in the event of his arresting Luther. 
He was armed, it was said, with no less than seventy letters 
of this kind. 

As regards the rose, Miltitz had strict orders to make 
the actual delivery of it to Frederick depend wholly on his 
compliance with Caietan's advice and will. It was deposited 
first of all in the mercantile house of the Fuggers at Augs- 
burg. This public precaution was taken, to prevent Miltitz 
from parting with the precious gift in haste or from too 
anxious a desire for the thanks and praise in prospect, 
before there were reasonable grounds for hoping that it had 
served its purpose. 

Towards the middle of December a Papal bull, issued on 
November 9, was published by Caietan in Germany, which 
finally laid down the doctrine of indulgences in the sense 
directly combated by Luther, and, although not mentioning 
him by name, threatened excommunication against all who 
shared the errors which had lately been promulgated in 
certain quarters. 

So utterly did the Pope appear to have set his face 
against all reconciliation or compromise. And yet, as the 
event showed, room was left for Miltitz in his secret 
instructions to try another method, according as circum- 
stances might dictate. 

Miltitz, after having crossed the Alps, sought an inter- 
view first with Caietan in Southern Germany, and, as the 
latter had gone to the Emperor in Austria, he paid a visit 
to his old friend Pfemnger, at his home in Bavaria. Con- 
tinuing his journey with him, he arrived on December 25 
at the town of Gera, and from there announced his arrival 
to Spalatin, who was at Altenburg. On the way he had had 
constant opportunities of noticing, both among learned men 
and the common people, signs of sympathy for the man 
against whom his mission was directed, and a feeling hostile 
to Borne, of which those at Borne neither knew nor cared 



MIL TITZ A ND THE DISP UTA TION A T LEIPZIG. 1 2 5 

to know. He was a young and clever man, full of the 
enjoyment of life, who knew how to mix and converse with 
people of every kind, and even to touch now and then on 
the situation and doings at Eome which were exciting such 
lively indignation. Tetzel also, whom Miltitz summoned to 
meet him, wrote complaining that the people in Germany 
were so excited against him by Luther, that his life would 
not be safe on the road. Miltitz accordingly, with his usual 
readiness, resolved speedily on an attempt to make Luther 
harmless by other means. After paying his visit to the 
Elector at Altenburg, he agreed to treat with him there in 
a friendly manner. 

The remarkable interview with Luther took place at 
Spalatin's house at Altenburg in the first week of the new 
year. Miltitz feigned the utmost frankness and friendliness, 
nay, even cordiality. He himself declared to Luther, that 
for the last hundred years no business had caused so much 
trouble at Eome as this one, and that they would gladly 
there give ten thousand ducats to prevent its going further. 
He described the state of popular feeling as he had found it 
on his journey ; three were for Luther where only one was 
for the Pope. He would not venture, even with an escort 
of 25,000 men, to carry off Luther through Germany to 
Eome. ' Oh, Martin ! ' he exclaimed, ' I thought you were 
some old theologian, who had carried on his disputations 
with himself, in his warm corner behind the stove. Now I 
see how young, and fresh, and vigorous you are.' Whilst 
plying him with exhortations and reproaches about the in- 
jury he did to the Eomish Church, he accompanied them 
with tears. He fancied by this means to make him his 
confidant and conformable to his schemes. 

Luther, however, soon showed him that he could be his 
match in cleverness. He refrained, he tells us, from letting 
Miltitz see that he was aware what crocodile's tears they 
were. Indeed he was quite prepared, as he had been before 
under the menaces of a Papal ambassador, so now under 



126 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

nis persuasions and entreaties, to yield all that his conscience 
allowed, but nothing beyond, and then quietly to let matters 
take their own course. 

In the event of Miltitz withdrawing his demand for a 
retractation, Luther agreed to write a letter to the Pope, 
acknowledging that he had been too hasty and severe, and 
promising to publish a declaration to German Christendom 
urging and admonishing reverence to the Komish Church. 
His cause, and the charges brought against him, might be 
tried before a German bishop, but he reserved to himself 
the right, in case the judgment should be unacceptable, of 
reviving his appeal to the Church in Council. Personally 
he desired to desist from further strife, but silence must 
also be imposed on his adversaries. 

Having come to this point of agreement, they partook of 
a friendly supper together, and on parting Miltitz bestowed 
on him a kiss. 

In a report given of this conference to the Elector, 
Luther expressed the hope that the matter by mutual silence 
might 'bleed itself to death,' but added his fear that, if the 
contest were prolonged, the question would grow larger and 
become serious. 

He now wrote his promised address to the people. He 
bated not an inch from his standpoint, so that, even if he 
should for the future let the controversy rest, he might not 
appear to have retracted anything. He allowed a value to 
indulgences, but only as a recompense for the ' satisfaction ' 
given by the sinner, and adding that it was better to do 
good than to purchase indulgences. He urged the duty of 
holding fast in Christian love and unity, and notwithstand- 
ing her faults and sins, to the Eomish Church, in which St. 
Peter and St. Paul and hundreds of martyrs had shed their 
blood, and of submitting to her authority, though with 
reference only to external matters. Propositions going be- 
yond what was here conceded he wished to be regarded as 
in no way affecting the people or the common man. They 



MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG 127 

should be left, he said, to the schools of theology, and 
learned men might fight the matter out between them. 
His opponents indeed, if they had admitted what Luther 
declared in this address, would have had to abandon their 
main principles, for to them the doctrine that indulgences and 
Church authority meant far more than was here stated was 
a truth indispensable for salvation. 

Luther wrote his letter to the Pope on March 3, 1519. 
It began with expressions of the deepest personal humility, 
but differed significantly in the quiet firmness of its tone 
from his other letter of the previous year to Leo X. Quietly, 
but as resolutely, he repudiated all idea of retracting his prin- 
ciples. They had already, through the opposition raised by 
his enemies, been propagated far and wide, beyond all his 
expectations, and had sunk into the hearts of the Germans, 
whose knowledge and judgment were now more matured. 
If he let himself be forced to retract them he would 
give occasion to accusation and revilement against the 
Eomish Church ; for the sake of her own honour he must 
refuse to do so. As for his battle against indulgences, his 
only thought had been to prevent the Mother Church from 
being denied by foreign avarice, and that the people should 
not be led astray, but learn to se'; love before indulgences. 

Meanwhile, on January 12, Maximilian had died. He 
was the last national Emperor with whom Germany was 
blessed ; in character a true German, endowed with rich gifts 
both mental and physical, a man of high courage and a 
warm heart, thoroughly understanding how to deal with 
high and low, and to win their esteem and love. By Luther 
too we hear him often spoken of afterwards in terms of affec- 
tionate remembrance : he tells us of his kindness a*nd courtesy 
to everyone, of his efforts to attract around him trusty and 
capable servants from all ranks, of his apt remarks, of his 
tact in jest and in earnest ; further of the troubles he had 
in his government of the Empire and with his princes, of 
the insolence he had to put up with from the Italians, and of 



128 



THE BREACH WITH ROME.. 



the humour with which he speaks of himself and his 
imperial rule. ' God/ said he on one occasion, ' has well 
ordered the temporal and spiritual government ; the former 




Oaivur ^r^^ijfffJGarniwatttiftifrauff ooip? w£&C3jcmi<tt feme afrrajm 
Fig. 13. — The Empebob Maximilian. (From his Portrait by Albert Durer.) 



is ruled over by a chamois-hunter, and the latter by a 
drunken priest ' (Pope Julius). He called himself a king of 
kings, because his German princes only acted like kings 



MILTITZ AND THE D I SPUTA TION AT LEIPZIG. 129 

when it suited them. With the lofty ideas and projects which 
he cherished as sovereign, he stood before the people as a 
worthy representative of Imperialism, even though his eyes 
may have been fixed in reality more on his own family and 
the power of his dynasty, than on the general interests of 
the Empire. The ecclesiastical grievances of the German 
nation, which we heard of at the Diet of 1518, had long 
engaged his lively sympathy, though he deemed it wiser to 
abstain from interfering. He had an opinion on these 
matters and on the necessary reforms drawn up by the 
Humanist Wimpheling. Nay, he had once, in his contest 
with Pope Julius, worked to bring about a general reforming 
Council. The question forces itself on the mind — however 
vain such an inquiry may be from a historical point of 
view — what turn Luther's great work, and the fortunes of 
the German nation and Church would have taken, if Maxi- 
milian had identified his own imperial projects with the 
interests for which Luther contended, and thus had come 
forward as the leader of a great national movement. As it 
was, Maximilian died without ever having realised more of 
the importance of this monk than was shown by his remark 
about him, already noticed, at Augsburg. 

His death served to increase the respect which the Pope 
found it necessary to show to the Elector Frederick. For, 
pending the election of a new Emperor, the latter was 
Administrator of the Empire for Northern Germany, and 
the issue of the election depended largely on his influence. 
On June 28 Maximilian's grandson, King Charles of Spain, 
then nineteen years of age, was chosen Emperor. He was 
a stranger to German life and customs, as the German 
people and the Eeformer must constantly have had to feel. 
For the Pope, however, these considerations were of further 
import, for in his dealings with the new Emperor he had to 
proceed at least with caution, since the latter was aware 
that he had done his best to prevent his election. On the 
other hand, Charles was under an obligation to the Elector, 



13© THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

being mainly indebted to him for his crown, and unable to 
come himself immediately to Germany to accept his rule. 

Miltitz meanwhile had further prosecuted his scheme, 
without revealing his own ultimate object. He chose for a 
judge of Luther's cause the Archbishop of Treves, and 
persuaded him to accept the office. Early in May he had 
an interview with Caietan at Coblentz, the chief town of the 
archiepiscopal diocese, and now summoned Luther to appear 
there before the Archbishop. 

But Miltitz took good care to say nothing about the opim 
ions entertained at Eome of his negotiations with Luther. 
Would Luther venture from his refuge at Wittenberg 
without the consent of his faithful sovereign, who himself 
evinced suspicion in the matter, and set forth in the dark, so 
to speak, on his long journey to the two ambassadors of the 
Pope ? He would be held a fool, he wrote to Miltitz, if he 
did ; moreover, he did not know where to find the money 
for the journey. What took place between Eome and 
Miltitz in this affair was altogether unknown to Luther, as 
it is to us. 

Whilst this attempt at a mediation — if such it could be 
called — remained thus in abeyance, a serious occasion of 
strife had been prepared, which caused the seemingly 
muffled storm to break out with all its violence. 

Luther's colleague, Carlstadt, who at first, on the 
appearance of Luther's theses, had viewed them with 
anxiety, but who afterwards espoused the new Wittenberg 
theology, and pressed forward in that path, had had a 
literary feud shice 1518 with Eck, on account of his attacks 
upon Luther. The latter, meeting Eck at Augsburg in 
October, arranged with him for a public disputation in 
which Eck and Carlstadt could fight the matter out. 
Luther hoped, as he told Eck and his friends, that there 
might be a worthy battle for the truth, and the world should 
then see that theologians could not only dispute but come 
to an agreement. Thus then, at least between him and 



MILTITZ AXD THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 151 

Eck, there seemed the prospect of a friendly undertanding. 
The university of Leipzig was chosen as the scene of the 
disputation. Duke George of Saxony, the local ruler, gave 
his consent, and rejected the protest of the theological 
faculty, to whom the affair seemed very critical. 

When, however, towards the end of the year, Eck pub- 
lished the theses which he intended to defend, Luther found 
with astonishment that they dealt with cardinal points of 
doctrine, which he himself, rather than Carlstadt, had 
maintained, and that Carlstadt was expressly designated the 
• champion of Luther." OnJy one of these theses related 
to a doctrine specially defended by Carlstadt, namely, that of 
the subjection of the will in sinful man. Among the other 
points noticed was the denial of the primacy of the Eomish 
Church during the first few centuries after Christ. Eck 
had extracted this from Luther's recent publications ; so 
far as Carlstadt was concerned, he could not have read or 
heard a word of such a statement. 

Luther tired up. In a public letter addressed to 
Carlstadt he observed that Eck had let loose against him, in 
reality, the frogs or flies intended for Carlstadt, and he 
challenged Eck himself. He would not re23roach him for 
having so maliciously, uncourteously. and in an untheological 
manner charged Carlstadt with doctrines to which he was a 
stranger ; he would not complain of being drawn himself 
again into the contest by a piece of base flattery on Eck's 
part towards the Pope ; he would merely show that his 
crafty wiles were well understood, and he wished to exhort 
him in a friendly spirit, for the future, if only for his own 
reputation, to be a little more sensible in his stratagems. 
Eck might then gird his sword upon his thigh, and add a 
Saxon triumph to the others of which he boasted, and so at 
length rest on his laurels. Let him bring forth to the 
world what he was in labour of ; let him disgorge what had 
long been lying heavy on his stomach, and bring his vain* 
glorious menaces at length to an end. 

E2 



132 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

Luther was anxious, indeed, apart from this special 
reason, to be allowed to defend in a public disputation the 
truth for which he was called a heretic ; he had made this 
proposal in vain to the legate at Augsburg. He now de- 
manded to be admitted to the lists at Leipzig. He wished 
in particular, to take up the contest, openly and decisively, 
about the Papal primacy. 

His friends just on this point grew anxious about hiim 
But he prepared his weapons with great diligence, studying 
thoroughly the ecclesiastical law-books and the history of 
ecclesiastical law, with which until now he had never 
occupied himself so much. Herein he found his own con- 
clusions fully confirmed. Nay, he found that the tyranni- 
cal pretensions of the Pope, even if more than a thousand 
years old, derived their sole and ultimate authority from 
the Papal decretals of the last four centuries. Arrayed 
against the theory of that primacy were the history of the 
previous centuries, the authority of the Council of Nice in 
325, and the express declaration of Scripture. This he 
stated now in a thesis, and announced his opinion in print. 

We have already noticed the high importance of this 
historical evidence in regard to matters of belief, as well as 
to the entire conception of Christian salvation, and of the 
true community or Church of Christ. The real essence 
of the Church is shown not to depend on its constitution 
under a Pope. And the course of history, wherein God 
allowed the Christians of the West to come under the 
external authority of the Pope, just as people come to be 
under the rule of different princes, in no way sub- 
jected, or should subject, the whole of Christendom to his 
dominion. The millions of Eastern Christians, who are not 
his subjects, and who are therefore condemned by the Pope 
as schismatics, are all, as Luther now distinctly declares, none 
the less members of Christendom, of the Church, of the 
Body of Christ. Participation in salvation does not exist 
only in the community of the Church of Kome, For 



- MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 133 

Christendom collectively, or the Universal Church, there is 
no other Head but Christ. Luther now also discovered and 
declared that the bishops did not receive their posts over 
individual dioceses and flocks until after the Apostolic 
period ; the episcopate therefore ceases to be an essential 
and necessary element of the Church system. What, then, 
is really essential for the continuance of the Church, and 
how far does it extend ? Luther answers this question with 
the fundamental principle of Evangelical Protestantism. 
The Church, he says, is not at Eome only, but there, and 
there only, where the Word of God is preached and believed 
in; where Christian faith, hope, and charity are alive, where 
Christ, inwardly received, stands before a united Christen- 
dom as her bridegroom. This Universal Church, says 
Luther, is the one intended by the Creed, when it says 'I 
believe in a Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints.' 
The mere external power which the Popedom exercised 
in its government of the Church, in the imposition of out- 
ward acts and penalties — appeared, so far, to Luther a 
matter of indifference in respect to religion and the salvation 
of souls. But it was another and more serious matter 
with regard to the claim to Divine right asserted for that 
power by the Papacy, and to its extension over the 
soul and conscience, over the community of the faithful, 
nay, over the fate of departed souls. Here Luther saw an 
invasion of the rights reserved by God to Himself, and a 
perversion of the true conditions of salvation, as established 
by Christ and testified in Scripture. Here he saw a human 
potentate and tyrant, setting himself up in the place of 
Christ and God. He shuddered, so he wrote to his friends, 
when, in reading the Papal decretals, he looked further into 
the doings of the Popes, with their demands and edicts, 
into this smithy of human laws, this fresh crucifixion 
of Christ, this ill-treatment and contempt of His people. 
As previously he had said that Antichrist ruled at the 
Papal court, so now, in a letter of March 13, 1519, he wrote 



134 



THE BREACH WITH ROME. 



privately to Spalatin, 'I know not whether the Pope is 
Antichrist himself, or one of his Apostles,' so antichristian 




Fig. 14. — Duke Geokge of Saxony. (From an old woodcut.) 



seemed to him the institution of the Papacy itself, with its 
principles and its fruits. Of these decretals he says iii 



MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 135 

another letter: 'If the death-blow dealt to indulgences 
has so damaged the see of Kome, what will it do when, by 
the will of God, its decretals have to breathe. their last? Not 
that I glory in victory, trusting to my own strength, but 
my trust is in the mercy of God, whose wrath is against 
the edicts of man.' 

Luther earnestly entreated Duke George to allow him 
to take part in the disputation. His Elector, who no doubt 
was personally desirous of a public, free, and learned treat- 
ment of the questions at issue, had already given him his 
permission. Luther's understanding with Miltitz presented 
no obstacle, since the silence required as a condition on 
the part of his opponents, had never been observed, nor 
indeed had ever been enjoined or recommended either by 
Miltitz or any other authorities of the Church. His appli- 
cation, nevertheless, to the Duke was referred to Eck for his 
concurrence, and the latter let him wait in vain for an answer. 
At last the Duke drew up a letter of safe -conduct for Carl- 
stadt and all whom he might bring with him, and under 
this designation Luther was included. He might safely 
trust himself to George's word as a man and a prince. 

The whole disputation was opposed and protested against 
from the outset by the Bishop of Merseburg, the chancellor 
of the university of Leipzig and the spiritual head of the 
faculty of theology. The project must have been inad- 
missible in his eyes from the mere fact that Eck's theses 
revived the controversy about indulgences, which was 
supposed to have been settled once and for ever by the 
Papal bull. He appealed to this pronouncement as a 
reason for not holding it. Inasmuch as the disputation 
took place, in spite of this protest, with the Duke's consent, 
it became an affair of all the more importance. 

Duke George himself took an active interest in the 
matter. His was a robust, upright, and sturdy character. He 
was a staunch and faithful upholder of the ecclesiastical tra- 
ditions in which he had grown up ; it was difficult for him 



i 3 6 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

to extend his views. But he was honestly interested hi the 
truth. He wished that his own men of learning might 
have a good seuffle in the lists for the truth's sake. On 
hearing of the objections of the Leipzig theologians to the 
disputation, his remark was, ' They are evidently afraid to 
be disturbed in their idleness and guzzling, and think that 
whenever they hear a shot fired, it has hit them." An 
unusually large audience being expected for the disputation, 
he had the large hall of his Castle of Pleissenburg cleared 
and furnished for the occasion. He commissioned two of his 
counsellors to preside, and was anxious himself to be present. 
How much depended on the impression which the disputa- 
tion itself, and Luther with it, should produce upon hi m ! 

On June 24 the Wittenbergers entered Leipzig, with 
Carlstadt at their head. An eye-witness has described the 
scene : ' They entered at the Grimma Gate, and their 
students, two hundred hi number, ran beside the carriages 
with pikes and halberds, and thus accompanied their 
professors. Dr. Carlstadt drove first ; after him, Dr. Martin 
and Philip (Melancthon) in a light basket carriage with 
solid wooden wheels (Rollwagen) ; none of the wagons were 
either curtained or covered. Just as they had passed the 
town-gate and had reached the churchyard of St. Paul, Dr. 
Carlstadt 's carriage broke down, and the doctor fell out 
into the dirt ; but Dr. Martin and his ndus Achates Philip, 
drove on.' Meanwhile, an episcopal mandate, forbidding the 
disputation on pain of excommunication, had been nailed 
up on the church doors, but no heed was paid to it. The 
magistrate even imprisoned the man who posted the bill 
for having done so without his permission. 

Before commencing the disputation, certain preliminary 
conditions were arranged. The proceedings were to be 
taken down by notaries. Eck had opposed this, fearing to be 
hindered hi the free use of his tongue, and not liking to 
have all his utterances hi debate so exactly defined. The 
protocols, however, were to be submitted to umpires charged 



MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 137 

to decide the result of the disputation, and were to be pub- 
lished after their verdict was announced. In vain had both 
Luther and Carlstadt, who refused to bind themselves to 
this decision, opposed this stipulation. The Duke, however, 
insisted on it, as a means of terminating judicially the contest. 

Early on the morning of June 27 the disputation was 
opened with all the worldly and spiritual solemnity that 
could be given to a most important academical event. 
First came an address of welcome in the hall, spoken by 
the Leipzig professor, Simon Pistoris ; then a mass in the 
church of St. Thomas, whither the assembly repaired in a 
procession of state ; then a still grander procession to the 
Pleissenburg, where a division of armed citizens was 
stationed as a guard of honour ; then a long speech on the 
right way of disputing, delivered in the Castle hall by the 
famous Peter Schade Mosellanus, a professor at Leipzig 
and a master of Latin eloquence ; and lastly the chanting 
three times of the Latin hymn, ' Come, Holy Ghost,' the 
whole assembly kneeling. At two o'clock the disputation 
between Eck and Carlstadt began. They were placed oppo- 
site each other in pulpits. 

A host of theologians and learned laymen had flocked 
together to the scene. From Wittenberg had come the 
Pomeranian Duke Barnim, then Eector of the University. 
Prince George of Anhalt, then a young Leipzig student, 
and afterwards a friend of Luther, was there. Duke George 
of Saxony frequently attended the proceedings, and listened 
attentively. His court jester is said to have appeared with 
him, and a comic scene is mentioned as having occurred 
between him and Eck, to the great diversion of the meeting. 
Frederick the Wise was represented by one of his counsellors, 
Hans von Planitz. 

Eck and Carlstadt contended for four days, from June 
27 to July 3, on the question of free will and its relations 
to the operation of the grace of God. It was a wearisome 
contest, with disconnected texts from Scripture and pas- 



138 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

sages from old teachers of the Church, but without any 
of the lively and free animation of moral and religious 
spirit, which, in Luther's treatment of such questions, 
carried his hearers with him. In power of memory, as 
in readiness of speech, Eck proved himself superior to 
his opponent. On Carlstadt bringing books of reference 
with him, he got this disallowed, and had now the advan- 
tage that no one could check his own quotations. Thus, 
confident of triumph, he proceeded to his contest with 
Luther. 

Luther meanwhile, on June 29, the day of St. Peter 
and St. Paul, had preached a sermon at the request of 
Duke Barnim at the Castle of Pleissenburg, wherein, re- 
ferring to the Gospel of the day, he treated, in a simple, 
practical, and edifying manner, of the mam point of the 
disputation between Eck and Carlstadt, and at the same 
time of the point he himself was about to argue, namely, 
the meaning of the power of the keys granted to St. Peter. 
In opposition to him, Eck delivered four sermons in various 
churches of the town (none of which Luther would have 
been allowed to preach in), and, speaking of them after- 
wards he said, ' I simply stirred up the people to be 
disgusted with the Lutheran errors.' The members of the 
Leipzig university kept peevishly aloof from then brethren 
of Wittenberg throughout the disputation, while paying all 
possible homage to Eck. When Luther one day entered a 
church, the monks who were conducting service hastily 
took away the monstrance and the elements, to avoid 
having them defiled by his presence. And yet he was after- 
wards reproached for neglecting to go to church at Leipzig. 
In the hostelries where the Wittenberg students lodged, 
such violent scenes occurred between them and their Leipzig 
brethren, that halberdiers had to be stationed at the tables 
to keep order. 

Duke George invited the heretic, together with Eck and 
Carlstadt, to his own table, and to a private audience as 



MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 139 

well. So frank and genial was he, and so intent on making 
himself acquainted with Luther and his cause. Luther spoke 
of him then as a good, pious prince, who knew how to speak 
in princely fashion. The Duke, however, told him at that 
audience, that the Bohemians entertained great expectations 
of him ; and yet George, who on his mother's side was 
grand-son to Podiebrad, King of Bohemia, was anxious to 
have all taint of the hateful Bohemian heresy most carefully 
avoided. On this point Luther remarked to him that he 
knew well how to distinguish between the pipe and the piper, 
and was only sorry to see how accessible princes might be 
to the influence of foreign agitations. Leipzig altogether 
must have been a strange and uncomfortable atmosphere for 
Luther. 

On Monday, July 4, he entered the lists with Eck. On 
the morning of that day he signed the conditions, which 
had been arranged in spite of his protest ; but he stated 
that, against the verdict of the judges, whatever it might be, 
he maintained the right of appeal to a Council, and would 
not accept the Papal curia as his judge. The protocol on 
this point ran as follows : * Nevertheless Dr. Martin has 
stipulated for his appeal, which he has already announced, 
and so far as the same is lawful, will in no wise abandon 
his claim thereto. He has stipulated further that, for 
reasons touching himsslf, the report of this disputation 
shall not be submitted for approval to the Papal court.' 

The appearance of Luther a this disputation has given 
occasion for the first description of his person which we 
possess from the pen of a contemporary. Mosellanus, 
already mentioned, says of him in a letter : 'He is of 
middle stature, his body thin, and so wasted by cere and 
study, that nearly all his bones may be counted. He is in 
the prime of life. His voice is clear and melodious. His 
learning and his knowledge of Scripture are extraordinary ; 
he has nearly everything at his fingers' ends. Greek and 
Hebrew he understands sufficiently well to give his judgment 



140 



THE BREACH WITH ROME. 




AE.THLRNA WSL SVAE /WENTIS 51MVLACHRA 1VTHERV5 

ExpfUA\rrxr wrrvs cera Ivcae occidvqf 



Fig. 15. — Luther. (From an engraving of Cranach, in 1520.) 



MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 141 

on the interpretation of the Scriptures. In speaking, he 
has a vast store of subjects and words at his command ; he 
is moreover refined and sociable in his life and manners ; he 
has no rough Stoicism or pride about him, and he under- 
stands how to adapt himself to different persons and times. 
In society he is lively and witty. He is always fresh, cheer- 
ful, and at his ease, and has a pleasant countenance, however 
hard his enemies may threaten him, so that one cannot but 
believe that Heaven is with him in his great undertaking. 
Most people however reproach him with wanting moderation 
in polemics, and with being more cutting than befits a 
theologian and one who propounds something new in sacred 
matters.' His ability as a disputant was afterwards ac- 
knowledged by Eck, who in referring to this tourney, quoted 
Aristotle's remark that when two men dispute together, each 
of whom has learned the art, there is sure to be a good 
disputation. 

Eck is described by Mosellanus as a man of a tall, 
square figure, with a voice fit for a public crier, but more 
coarse than distinct, and with nothing pleasant about it ; with 
the mouth, the eyes, and the whole appearance of a butcher 
or soldier, but with a most remarkable memory. In power 
of memory and-elocution he surpassed even Luther ; but in 
solidity and real breadth of learning, impartial men like 
Pistoris gave the palm to Luther. Eck is said to have 
imitated the Italians in his great animation of speech, his 
declamation, and gesticulations with his arms and his whole 
body. Melancthon even said in a letter after the disputa- 
tion, ' Most of us must admire Eck for his manifold and 
distinguished intellectual gifts.' Later on he calls him, 
1 Eckeckeck, the daws' -voice.' At any rate Eck displayed a 
rare power and endurance in those Leipzig days, and under- 
stood above all how to pursue with cleverness the real object 
he had in view in his contest with Luther. 

The two began at once with that point which Eck had 
singled out as the chief object of debate, and about which 



142 THE BREACH WITH ROME 

Luther had advanced his boldest proposition, namely, the 
question of the Papal power. 

After lengthy discussions on the evidence of texts of 
Scripture ; on the old Fathers of the Church, to whom the 
Papal supremacy was unknown ; on the Western Church oi 




Fig. 16.— De. John Eck. (From an old woodcut.) 

middle ages, by whom that supremacy was acknowledged 
at an earlier period than Luther would admit ; on the non- 
subjection to Eome of Eastern Christendom, to whom Luther 
referred, and whom Eck with a light heart put outside the 
pale of salvation, Eck on" the second day of the disputation 



MILT1TZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 143 

passed, after due premeditation, from the ecclesiastical 
authorities he had quoted in favour of the Divine right of 
the Papal primacy, to the statements of the English heretic 
Wicliffe, and the Bohemian Huss, who had denied this 
right, and had therefore been justly condemned. He was 
bound to notice them, he said, since, in his own frail and 
humble judgment, Luther's thesis favoured in the highest 
degree' the errors of the Bohemians, who, it was reported, 
wished him well for his opinions. Luther answered him as 
he had done in each case before. He condemned the sepa- 
ration of the Bohemians from the Catholic Church, on the 
ground that the highest right derived from God was that 
of love and the Spirit, and he repudiated the reproach 
which Eck sought to cast upon him. But he declared 
at the same time that the Bohemians on that point had 
never yet been refuted. And with perfect self-conviction 
and calm reflection he proceeded to assert that among 
the articles of Huss some were fundamentally Christian 
and Evangelical, such as, for example, his statements that 
there was only one Universal Church (to which even 
Greek Christendom had always and still belonged), and 
that the belief in the supremacy of the Church of Koine 
was not necessary to salvation. No man, he added, durst 
impose upon a Christian an article of belief which was 
antiscriptural ; the judgment of an individual Christian 
must be worth more than that of the Pope or even of a 
Council, provided he has a better ground for it. 

That moment, when Luther spoke thus of the doctrines 
of Huss, a heretic already condemned by a Council and 
proscribed in Germany, was the most impressive and im- 
portant in the whole disputation. An eye-witness, who sat 
below Duke George and Barnim, relates that the Duke, on 
hearing the words, shouted out in a voice heard by all the 
assembly, ' A plague upon it ! ' and shook his head, and put 
both hands to his sides. The whole audience, variously 
as they thought of the assertion, must have been fairly 



144 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

astounded. Luther, it was true, had already stated in 
writing that a Council could err. But now he declared him- 
self for principles which a Council, namely that of Constance, 
solemnly appointed and unanimously recognised by the 
whole of Western Christendom, had condemned, and thus 
openly accused that Council of error in a decision of the 
most momentous importance. Nay more, thai; decision 
had been concurred in by the very men who, while recog- 
nising the Papal primacy, strenuously defended against 
Papal despotism the rights of General Councils, and of 
the nations and states which they represented. The 
Western Catholic Church entertained, as we have seen, 
a diversity of views as to the relative authority of the 
Popedom, as an institution of Christ, and that which ap- 
pertained to Councils. Luther now, by denying the Divine 
institution and authority of the Pepacy, seemed to have 
broken with all authority whatsoever existing in the Church, 
and with every possible exercise of the same. 

Luther himself does not appear to have considered at 
the moment this extent of his acknowledgment of the 
* Christian ' character of some of Huss's articles, nor to 
have adequately reflected on the attitude of direct oppo- 
sition in which it placed him to the Council of Constance. 
When Eck declared it ' horrible ' that the ' reverend father ' 
had not shrunk from contradicting that holy Council, as- 
sembled by consent of all Christendom, Luther interrupted 
him with the words, ' It is not true that I have spoken against 
the Council of Constance.' He then went on to draw the 
inference that the authority of the Council, if it erred in re- 
spect of those articles, was consequently fallible altogether. 

Some days later, and after further consideration, Luther 
produced four propositions of Huss, which were perfectly 
Christian, although they had been formally rejected by the 
Council. He sought means, nevertheless, to preserve for 
the Council its dignity. As for these rejected articles, he 
said, it had declared only some to be heretical, and others tc 



M1LTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 145 

be simply mistaken, and the latter, at all events, must not 
be counted as heresies — nay, he took the liberty of sup- 
posing that the former were interpolations in the text of the 
Council's resolutions. He would grant, further, that the de- 
cisions of a Council in matters of faith must at all times be 
accepted. And in order to guard himself against any mis- 
understanding and misconstruction, he once broke off from 
the Latin, in which the whole disputation had been con- 
ducted, and declared in German that he in no way desired 
to see allegiance renounced to the Eomish Church, but that 
the only question in dispute was whether its supremacy 
rested on Divine right— that is to say, on direct Divine 
institution in the New Testament, or whether its origin and 
character were simply such as the Imperial Crown, for 
example, possessed in relation to the German nation. He 
was well aware how charges of heresy and apostasy were 
raised against him, and how industriously Eck had pro- 
moted them. It was only with pain and inward struggles 
that he stood out, Bible in hand, against the Council of 
Constance and such a general gathering of Western Christen- 
dom. But not a step would he go towards any recognition 
of the Papacy as an institution resting on Scripture. He 
insisted that even a Council could not compel him to do 
this, or make an essential article of Christian belief out 
of anything not found in the Bible. Again and again he 
declared that even a Council could err. 

For five whole days they contested this main point of 
the disputation, without arriving at any further result. 

The other subjects of discussion, relating to purgatory, 
indulgences, and penance, were after this of very little 
importance. With regard to indulgences even Eck now 
displayed striking moderation. The dispute on the correct 
conception of purgatory led to a new and important decla- 
ration by Luther as to the power of the Church in rela- 
tion to Scripture. Eck quoted as Biblical proof a passage 
from the Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament, which 



i 4 6 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

although not originally included in the records of the Old 
Covenant, had been accepted by the middle ages as of equal 
authority with the other Biblical writings. For the first 
time Luther now protested against the equal value thus 
assigned to them, and especially against the Church con- 
ferring upon them an authority they did not possess. 

The disputation between Eck and Luther lasted till 
July 13. Luther concluded his argument with the words : 
' I am sorry that the learned doctor only dips into Scripture 
as deep as the water- spider into the water — nay, that he 
seems to fly from it as the devil from the Cross. I prefer, 
with all deference to the Fathers, the authority of Scripture, 
which I herewith recommend to the arbiters of our cause.' 

After this Carlstadt and Eck had only a short passage 
of arms. The disputation was to be concluded on the loth, 
as Duke George wished to receive the Elector of Branden- 
burg on a visit to the Pleissenburg. With regard to the 
universities, to whom the report of the disputation was to 
be submitted, those agreed upon were Paris and Erfurt, 
but neither of the two would undertake so responsible a 
task. 

Eck left the disputation with triumph, applauded by his 
friends and rewarded by Duke George with favours and 
honours. He followed up his fancied victory by further 
exciting the people against Luther, and pointing out to 
them in particular the sympathy between him and Huss. 
He wrote even to the Elector Frederick from Leipzig, pro- 
posing that he should have Luther's books burnt. The two 
men henceforth and for ever were mutual enemies, with no 
dealings together but those of heated controversy in writing. 
Eck's chief efforts were directed to securing Luther's formal 
and public condemnation. 

At Leipzig Luther had been watched with the utmost 
suspicion. The common people had actually been told that 
there was something mysterious in the little silver ring he 
wore on his finger, very likely a small charm with the devil 



MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 147 

inside. It was even remarked on and wondered at that he 
carried a bunch of flowers in his hand, which he would look 
at and smell. From that time probably originated the saying 
of a devout old dame at Leipzig, as published by one of his 
theological opponents, the old woman having once lived at 
Eisleben with Luther's mother, that her son Martin was the 
fruit of an embrace by the devil. 

For real informat'on, however, about Luther at Leipzig, 
and the impression he produced by his arguments, more is 
to be gathered from the effect of his public appearance 
there during this disputation, than from a whole heap of 
printed matter. We allude not only to the educated laity 
and men of learning, but to the mass of the people who 
shared in the excitement caused by this controversy. A 
few months later we hear an opponent complain that 
Luther's teaching had given rise to so much squabbling, 
discord, and rebellion among the people, that ' there 
was absolutely not a town, village, or house, where 
men were not ready to tear each other to pieces on his 
account.' 

Luther returned to Wittenberg full of dejection. The 
time at Leipzig had only been wasted ; the disputation had 
been unworthy of the name ; Eck and his friends there 
had cared nothing whatever about the truth. Eck, he 
said, had made more clamour in an hour than he or 
Carlstadt could have done in a couple of years, and yet all 
the time the question at issue was one of peaceful and 
abstruse theology. His disappointment, however, did not 
refer, as people perhaps might have imagined, to the treat- 
ment his thesis on the Papal primacy had met with, or to 
any embarrassment occasioned him on that account. On 
the contrary, while complaining of the unworthy character 
of the disputation, he excepted that particular thesis. 
He alluded rather to the superficiality and want of in- 
terest with which such important quesions as justification 
by faith, and the sinfulness attaching even to the best 

l2 



148 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

works of man, were passed over or evaded. On all the 
points which he had wished to contend for and expound 
at Leipzig, he now published further explanations. And 
with regard to the Councils, he declared in still stronger 
terms than at Leipzig, that they certainly might err and 
had erred even in the most important matters ; one had 
no right to identify either them or the Pope with the 
Church. 

From this he proceeded to explain his true relations 
with the Bohemians. The theologian Jerome Eraser, a friend 
of Eck, and a favourite of Duke George, contributed in 
his own way to this end. He had had a hot discussion 
with Luther before the disputation at Leipzig, in which he 
reproached him with causing trouble in the Church. He 
now prepared a remarkable public letter to a high Catholic 
ecclesiastic at Prague, of the name of Zack. "Whilst assert- 
ing in it that the Bohemian schismatics appealed to Luther 
and had actually offered prayers and held,, services for him 
during the disputation, he announced, with feigned kindness 
to Luther, that the latter, on the contrary, had eagerly re- 
pudiated at Leipzig any fellowship with them, and had 
denounced their apostasyfrom Borne. Luther detected in 
all this, mere trickery and malice, and we also can only 
recognise in it a crafty attempt to ruin Luther's position 
all round. If, says Luther, he were to accept in silence the 
praise here meted out to him, he would seem to have re- 
tracted his whole teaching, and laid down his arms before 
Eck ; if, on the other hand, he were to disclaim it, he would 
be cried down at once as a patron of the Bohemians, 
and charged with base ingratitude to Eraser. Accordingly, 
in a small pamphlet, he broke out, full of wrath and bitter- 
ness, against Eraser, who replied to him in a similar tone. 
But he represented the case with great clearness. If his 
doctrines had pleased the Bohemians, he would not retract 
thern on that account. He had no desire to screen their 
errors, but he found on their side Christ, the Scriptures, and 



MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 149 

the sacraments of the Church, and therewith a Christian 
hatred of the worldliness, immorality, and arrogance of 
the Eomish clergy. Nay, he rejoiced to think that his 
doctrines pleased them, and would be glad if they pleased 
Jews and Turks, and Emser, who was enthralled in godless 
error, and even Eck himself. 

Letters were now already on the way to Luther from 
two ecclesiastics of Prague, Paduschka and Bossdalovicky, 
members of the Utraquist Hussite Church, which in opposi- 
tion to Eome insisted on the sacramental cup being given 
to the laity. They assured Luther of then- joyful and 
prayerful sympathy with him in his struggle. One of them 
sent him a present of knives of Bohemian workmanship, 
the other a writing of Huss upon the Church. Luther 
accepted the presents with cordiality, and sent them his 
own writings in return. With regard to separation from 
the Komish Church, the experience of Huss plainly showed 
him how impossible that Church made it, even to one whose 
heart was heavy at the thought of leaving her, to remain 
in her communion. 

Thus the contest at Leipzig was now over, whilst in the 
meantime at Frankfort-on-the-Main, after the election of 
the new Emperor, the Elector Frederick and the Archbishop 
of Treves consulted together about an examination of Luther 
before the Archbishop, as proposed by Miltitz. Both wished 
to postpone it till the Diet, then about to be held. Miltitz, 
however, notwithstanding the result of the disputation and 
the further declarations of Luther, still clung to his plan of 
mediation. He arranged once more an interview with Luther 
on October 9 at Liebenwerda, when the latter renewed his 
promise to appear before the Archbishop, but he failed to 
induce the Elector to let Luther travel with him to the 
Archbishop. For the delivery of the golden rose, when 
it at last took place, he was richly rewarded with money. 
But the fruitlessness of his negotiations with Luther had 
become apparent. 



ico THE BREACH WITH ROME. 



CHAPTEE V. 
luther's further work, writings, and inward progress, 

UNTIL 1520. 

Luther looked upon his disputation at Leipzig as an idle 
waste of time. He longed to get back to his work at 
Wittenberg. He remained, in fact, devoted with his whole 
soul to his official duties there, though to the historian, of 
course, his work and struggles in the broader and general 
arena of the Church engage the most attention. He might 
well quarrel with the occasions .that constantly called him 
out to it, as so many interruptions to his proper calling. 

His energy there in the pulpit was as constant as his 
energy in the professor's chair. He glowed with zeal to 
unfold the one truth of salvation from its original source, 
the Scriptures, and to declare it and impress it on the 
hearts of his young pupils and his Wittenberg congre- 
gation, of educated and uneducated, of great and small. 
But he also wished to lay it before his students as a truth 
for life. With this object, he continued active with his 
pen, both in the Latin and the German languages. He 
was glad to turn to this from the questions of ecclesiastical 
controversy, which had formed the subject of his dis- 
putation, and of the writings referring to it. It was 
enough for him to show forth simply the merciful love of 
God and of the Saviour Christ, to point out the simple 
road of faith, and to destroy all trust in mere outward 
works, in one's own merit and virtue. Only to this ex- 
tent, and because the authority pretended by the Church 
was opposed to this truth and this road to salvation, 



LUTHER'S FURTHER WORK, WRITINGS, ETC. 151 

he was forced here also, and in face of his congregation, to 
wield the sword of his eloquence against that authority, 
and this he did with a zeal regardless of consequences. In 
all that he did, in his lectures as well as in his sermons, in 
his exposition of God's word in particular, as in his own 
polemics, he always threw his whole personality into the 
subject. We see him inwardly moved and often elated by 
the joyful message which he himself had learned, and had 
to announce to others, inspired by love to his fellow- 
Christians, whom he would wish to help save, and zealous 
even to anger for the cause of his Lord. At the same 
time, it cannot be denied that he was often carried away 
by the vehemence of his views, which saw at once in every 
opponent an uncompromising enemy to the truth ; and 
that his naturally passionate temperament was often power- 
fully stirred, though even then his whole tone and demeanour 
was blended with outbursts of the noblest and the purest 
zeal. 

In his academical lectures Luther still remained faith- 
ful to that path which he had struck out on entering the 
theological faculty. He wished simply to propound the 
revealed word of God. by explaining the books of the Old 
and New Testaments ; though he took pains in these 
lectures, in which he devoted several terms to the study of a 
single book, to explain thoroughly and impressively the most 
important doctrines of Christian faith and conduct. Thus he 
occupied himself during the time of the contest about in- 
dulgences, and after the autumn of 1516, with the Epistle to 
the Galatians, wherein he found comprised clearly and briefly 
the fundamental truth of salvation, the doctrine of the way 
of faith, of God's laws of requirements and punishments, and 
of gospel grace. He then turned anew to the Psalms, dissatis- 
fied with his own earlier exposition of them. His exposition 
of St. Paul's Epistle he had sent to the press whilst engaged 
in his preparations for the Leipzig disputation. His oppo- 
nents, he says here, might busy themselves with their much 



152 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

larger affairs, with their indulgences, their Papal bulls, and 
the power of the Church, and so on ; he would retire to 
smaller matters, to the Holy Scriptures and to the Apostle, 
who called himself not a prince of Apostles, but the least 
of the Apostles. He also now began the printing of his 
work on the Psalms. 

Crowds of listeners gathered around him ; his audience 
at times numbered upwards of four hundred. During the 
three years following the outbreak of the quarrel about in- 
dulgences, the number of those who matriculated annually 
at the university increased threefold. Luther wrote to 
Spalatin that the number of students increased mightily, 
like an overflowing river ; the town could no longer contain 
them, many had to leave again for want of dwellings. 

To this prosperity of the university Melancthon espe- 
cially contributed. He had been appointed, as we have 
already mentioned, first professor of Greek by the Elector, 
and in addition to the young theologians, he attracted a 
number of other students to his lectures. Of still greater 
importance for Luther and his work, was the personal 
friendship and community of ideas, convictions, and aspi- 
rations which had bound the two men together in close 
intimacy from their first acquaintance. Their paths in life 
had hitherto been very different. Philip Schwarzerd, sur- 
named Melancthon, born in 1497 of a burgher's family of the 
little town of Bretten in the Palatinate, had passed a happy 
youth, and harmoniously and peacefully developed into man- 
hood. He had had from early life capable teachers for his 
education, and was under the protection of the great philologist 
Eeuchlin, who was a brother of his grandmother. He then 
showed gifts of mind wonderfully rich and early ripening. 
Besides the classics, he learnt mathematics, astronomy, and 
law. He also studied the Scriptures, grew to love them, and 
even when a youth had made himself familiar with their 
contents, without having had first to learn to know their 
worth by a heavy sense of inward need, by inward struggles 



LUTHER'S FURTHER WORK, WRITINGS, ETC. 153 



or a long unsatisfied hunger of the soul. Thus, at seven- 
teen he was already master of arts, and at twenty-one was 
appointed professor at Wittenberg. The young man, with 
an insignificant, delicate frame, and a shy, awkward de- 




■■ '■'.:■■■•. • : 



\S-rL6 



VlVENTlS «P OTVIT'DVRERIVS- ORA-PHI LIPPI 
A\ENTEMoNON 'POTVIT-PtNGERE'DO CTA 
JWANVS 

M 



Fig. 17. — Melancthon. (From a Portrait by Diirer.) 

meanour, yet with a handsome, powerful forehead, an in- 
tellectual eye, and refined, thoughtful features, effaced at 
once, by his inaugural address, any doubts arising from his 
youthful appearance. 



154 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

In this speech, however, he already declared that the 
chief object of classical studies was to teach theologians to 
draw from the original fount of Holy Scripture. He him- 
self delivered a lecture on the New Testament immediately 
after one on Homer. And it was the Lutheran conception 
of the doctrine of salvation which he adopted in his own 
continued study of the Bible. 

The year of his arrival at Wittenberg he celebrated 
Luther in a poem. He accompanied him to Leipzig. 
During the disputation there he is said to have assisted his 
friend with occasional suggestions or notes of argument, 
and thereby to have roused the anger of Eck. He now 
took the lowest theological degree of bachelor, to qualify 
himself for giving theological lectures on Scripture. He 
who from early youth had enjoyed so abundantly the 
treasures of Humanistic learning, and had won for him- 
self the admiration of an Erasmus, now found in this 
study of Scripture a ' heavenly ambrosia ' for his soul, and 
something much higher than all human wisdom. And 
already,' in independent judgment on the traditional doc- 
trines of the Church, he not only kept pace with Luther 
but even outwent him. It was he who attacked the 
dogma of transubstantiation, according to which in the 
mass the bread and wine of the sacrament are so changed 
by the consecration of the priest into the body and blood 
of our Lord, that nothing really remains of their original 
substance, but they only appear to the senses to retain it. 

Luther at once recognised with joy the marvellous 
wealth of talent and knowledge in his new colleague, whose 
senior he was by fourteen years, besides being far ahead of 
him in theological study and experience. We have seen, 
during Luther's stay at Augsburg, how closely his heart 
clung to Melancthon and to the ' sweet intercourse ' with 
him ; we know of no other instance where Luther formed a 
friendship so rapidly. The more intimately he knew him, 
the more highly he esteemed him. When Eck spoke 



LUTHER'S FURTHER WORK, WRITINGS, ETC 155 

slightingly of him as a mere paltry grammarian, Luther ex- 
claimed, ' I, the doctor of philosophy and theology, am not 
ashamed to yield the point, if this grammarian's mind 
thinks differently to myself ; I have done so often already, 
and do the same daily, because of the gifts with which God 
has so richly filled this fragile vessel ; I honour the work of 
my God in him.' ' Philip,' he said at another time, ' is a 
wonder to us all; if the Lord will, he will beat many 
Martins as the mightiest enemy to the devil and Scholasti- 
cism ; ' and again, ' This little Greek is even my master in 
theology.' Such were Luther's words, not uttered to par- 
ticular friends of Melancthon, in order to please them, nor 
in public speeches or poetry, in which at that time friends 
showered fulsome flattery on friends, but in confidential 
letters to his own most intimate friends, to Spalatin, Staupitz, 
and others. So willing and ready was he, whilst himself on 
the road to the loftiest work and successes, to give precedence 
to this new companion whom God had given him. Luther 
also interested himself with Spalatin to obtain a higher 
salary for Melancthon, and thus keep him at Wittenberg. 
In common with other friends, he endeavoured to induce 
him to marry ; for he needed a wife who would care for 
his health and household better than he did himself. His 
marriage actually took place in 1520, after he had at first 
resisted, in order to allow no interruption to his highest 
enjoyment, his learned studies. 

At the university Luther was also busily engaged with 
the necessary preparations for many lectures that were not 
theological. He steadily persisted in his efforts to secure 
the appointment of a competent professor of Hebrew. He 
also worked hard to get a qualified printer, the son of the 
printer L otter at Leipzig, to settle at the university, and 
set up there for the first time a press for three languages, 
German, Latin, and Greek. For everything of this kind 
that was submitted to the Elector, who took a constant 
interest in the prosperity of the university, his friend Spalatin 



156 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

was his confidential intermediary. As early as 1518 Luther 
had expressed to him the wish and hope that Wittenberg, in 
honour of Frederick the Wise, should, by a new arrange- 
ment of study, become the occasion and pattern for a general 
reform of the universities. In addition to his constant and 
arduous labours of various kinds, he took part also in the 
social intercourse of his colleagues, although he complained 
of the time he lost by invitations and entertainments. 

In the town church at Wittenberg he continued his 
active duties not only on Sundays but during the week. 
His custom was to expound consecutively in a course of 
sermons the Old and New Testaments, and he explained 
particularly to children and those under age, the Lord's 
Prayer and the Ten Commandments. This work alone, 
he once complained to Spalatin, required properly a man 
for it and nothing else. These services he gave to the 
town congregation gratuitously. The magistracy were 
content to recognise them by trifling presents now and 
then; 'for instance, by a gift of money on his return from 
Leipzig, where he had had to live on his own very scanty 
means. In simple, powerful, and thoroughly popular 
language, Luther sought to bring home to the people who 
filled his church, the supreme truth he had newly gained. 
Here in particular he employed his own peculiar German, 
as he employed it also in his writings. 

Both he and Melancthon formed a close personal in- 
timacy with several worthy townsmen of Wittenberg. The 
most prominent man among them, the painter Lucas 
Cranach, from Bamberg, owner of a house and estate at 
Wittenberg, the proprietor of an apothecary's and also of a 
stationer's business, besides being a member of the magis- 
tracy, and finally burgomaster, belonged to the circle of 
Luther's nearest friends. Luther took a genuine pleasure 
in Cranach's art, and the latter, in his turn, soon employed 
it in the service of the Keformation. 

While occupied thus in delivering simple and practical 



LUTHER'S FURTHER WORK, WRITINGS, ETC. 157 

sermons to his congregation in the town, he continued to 
publish written works of the same character and purport, in 
addition to his labours in the field of learned ecclesiastical 
controversy, thus showing the love with which he worked 
for them at large in this matter. These writings were little 
books, tracts, so-called sermons. It did not disturb him, he 
once said, to hear daily of certain people who despised his 
poverty because he only wrote little books and German 
sermons for the unlearned laymen. ' Would to God,' he 




Fig. 18.— Lucas Cranach. (From a Portrait by himself.) 



said, ' I had all my life long and with all my power served a 
layman to his improvement ; I should then be content to 
thank God, and would very willingly after that let all my 
little books perish. I leave it to others to judge whether 
writing large books and a great number of them constitutes 
art and is useful to Christianity ; I consider rather, even if 
I cared to write large books after their art, I might do that 
quicker , with God's help, than making a little sermon in my 



I5§ THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

fashion. I have never compelled or entreated anyone to 
listen to me or read my sermons. I have given freely to the 
congregation of what God has given to me and I owe to 
them ; whoever does not like His word, let him read and 
listen to others.' 

In this spirit he composed, after the Leipzig disputation, 
a little consolatory tract for Christians, full of reflection and 
wisdom. He dedicated it to the Elector, an illness of 
whom had prompted him to write it. Even his most 
bigoted opponents could not withhold their approbation 
of the work. Luther's pupil and biographer Mathesius, 
thought there had never been such words of comfort 
written before in the German language. In a similar strain 
Luther wrote about preparation for dying! the contempla- 
tion of Christ's sufferings, and other matters of like kind. 
He explained to the people in a few pages the Ten Com- 
mandments, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer. At the 
desire of the Elector, conveyed to him through Spalatin, 
and notwithstanding the difficulty he had in finding time 
for such a large work, he applied himself to a practical 
exposition of the Epistles and Gospels read in church, 
intended principally for the use of preachers. 

At the same time he made steady progress with his own 
Scriptural researches, which led him away more and more 
from the main articles of the purely traditional doctrines of 
the Church. And the light which dawned upon him in 
these studies he took pains to impart at once to his con- 
gregation. But it was no mere negative or hypercritical 
interest that led him on and induced him to write. In 
connection with the saving efficacy of faith, which he had 
gathered from the Bible, new truths, full of import, un 
folded themselves before him. On the other hand, such 
dogmas of the Church as he found to have no warrant in 
Scripture, nor to harmonise with the Scriptural doctrine of 
salvation, frequently faded from his notice, and perished 
even before he was fully conscious of their hollowness. 



LUTHER'S FURTHER WORK, WRITINGS, ETC. 159 

The new knowledge had ripened with him before the old 
husk was thrown away. 

Thus he now learnt and taught others to understand 
anew the meaning of the Christian sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper. The Church of the middle ages beheld 
with wonder in this sacrament the miracle of transub- 
stantiation. The body of our Lord, moreover, here present 
as the object of adoration, was to serve above all as the 
bloodless repetition of the bloody sacrifice for sin on 
Golgotha, to be offered to God for the good of Christen- 
dom and mankind. To offer that sacrifice was the highest 
act which the priesthood could boast of, as being thought 
worthy to perform by God. This whole mysterious, sacred 
transaction was clothed in the mass, for the eye and ear 
of the members of the congregation, with a number of 
ritualistic forms. In giving them, moreover, the con- 
secrated elements in the sacrament, the priest alone par- 
took of the cup. Luther, on the contrary, found the whole 
meaning of that institution of the departing Saviour, 
according to His own words, ' Take, eat, and drink,' in the 
blessed and joyful communion here prepared by Him for 
the congregation of receivers, each one of whom was verily 
to partake of it in faith. Here, as he taught in a sermon 
on the Sacrament in 1519, they were to celebrate and enjoy 
real communion ; communion with the Saviour, who feeds 
them with His flesh and blood ; communion with one 
another, that they, eating of one bread, should become one 
cake, one bread, one body united in love ; communion in 
all the benefits purchased by their Saviour and Head ; and 
communion also in all gifts of grace bestowed upon His 
people, in all sufferings to be endured, and in all virtues 
alive in their hearts. Above all, he appealed to Christ's 
own words, that He had shed His blood for the forgiveness 
of sins. Here at His holy Supper, He wished to dis- 
pense this forgiveness, and, with it, eternal life to all 
His guests ; He pledged it to them here by the gift of 



i6o THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

His own body. Luther, but only incidentally, remarked in 
this sermon, when speaking of the cup : ' I should be well 
pleased to see the Church decree in a General Council, that 
communion in both kinds should be given to the laity as to 
the priests.' Even then he regarded as unfounded that 
idea of sacrifice at the mass which in his later writings he 
so strenuously denied and combated. At the same time he 
pointed out the sacrifice which Christendom, and indeed 
every Christian, must continually offer to God, namely, the 
sacrifice to God of himself and all that he possesses, offered 
with inward humility, prayer, and thankfulness. The 
question as to a change of the elements, which Melancthon 
had already denied, Luther passed by as an unnecessary 
subtlety. Lastly, together with the sacrifice supposed to be 
offered by the priest, he dismissed also the notion of a pecu- 
liar priesthood ; for with the real sacrifice offered by Chris- 
tians, as he understood it, all became priests. Instead of the 
difference theretofore existing between priests and laymen, 
he would recognise no difference among Christians but such 
as was conferred by the public ministration of God's word 
and sacrament. 

Whilst discoursing in a sermon, in a similar manner, on 
the inner meaning of baptism, he passed from the vow of 
baptism to the vow of chastity, so highly prized in the 
Catholic Church. He admits this vow, but represents the 
former one as so immeasurably higher and all-embracing, as 
to deprive the Church of her grounds for attaching such 
value to the latter. 

He enlarged on moral and religious life in general in a 
long sermon ' On Good Works,' which he dedicated early in 
1520 to Duke John, the brother of the Elector. In clear 
and earnest language he explained how faith itself, on 
which everything depended, was a matter of innermost 
moral life and conduct, nay, the very highest work con- 
formable to God's will ; and further, how that same faith 
cannot possibly remain merely passive, but, on the contrary, 



LUTHER'S FURTHER WORK, WRITINGS, ETC. 161 

the faithful Christian must himself become pleasing to 
God, on whose grace he relies, must love Him again, and 
fulfil His holy Will with energy and activity in all duties and 
relations of life. These duties he proceeds to explain accord- 
ing to the Ten Commandments. He will not, however, have 
the conscience further laden with duties imposed by the 
Church, for which no corresponding moral obligation exists. 
He turns then with earnest exhortation to rebuke certain 
common faults and crimes in the public life of his nation, 
the gluttony and drunkenness, the excessive luxury, the 
loose living, and the usury, which was then the subject of 
so much complaint. Against this last practice he preached 
a special sermon, in which, agreeably with the older teach- 
ing of the Church, he spoke of all interest taken for money 
as questionable, inasmuch as Jesus had exhorted only to 
lending without looking for a return. The creditor, at any 
rate, he said, should take his share of the risks to which 
his capital, in the hands of the debtor, was exposed from 
accident or misadventure. 

The essence of the Church of Christ he placed in that 
inner communion of the faithful with one another and their 
heavenly Head, on which he dwelt with such emphasis in 
connection with the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. For 
the stability and prosperity of this Church he considered no 
externals necessary beyond the preaching of God's Word and 
the administration of the Sacraments, as ordained by 
Christ, — no Eomish Popedom, nor any other hierarchical 
arrangements. But in the same spirit of love and brotherly 
fellowship with which he embraced Hussites, as well as the 
Eastern Christians who were denounced as Schismatics, he 
still wished to hold fast to the visible community of the 
Church of Eome, declining to identify it with the corrupt 
Eomish Curia. That love, he said, should make him assist 
and sympathise with the Church, even in her infirmities 
and faults. 

He was anxious also to fulfil personally all the minor 

M 



1 62 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

duties incumbent on him as a monk and a priest. And yet 
the higher obligations of his calling, that incessant activity 
in proclaiming the word, both by speech and writing, were of 
much greater importance in his eyes. He performed with 
diligence such duties as the regular repetition of prayers, 
singing, reading the Horce, and never dreamed of venturing 
to omit them. He relates afterwards, how wonderfully in- 
dustrious he had been in this respect. Often, if he hap- 
pened to neglect these duties during the week, he would 
make up for it in the course of the Sunday from early 
morning till the evening, going without his breakfast and 
dinner. In vain his friend Melancthon represented to him 
that, if the neglect were such a sin, so foolish a reparation 
would not atone for it. 

Measures, however, were now taken by the Eomish 
Church and its representatives, which, by attacking the 
word, as he preached it, drove him further into the battle. 

It will be remembered that the Papal bull, directed 
against his theses on indulgences, had not actually men- 
tioned him by name. Contemptuously, therefore, as the 
Pope had spoken of him as an execrable heretic, he had 
never yet uttered a formal public judgment upon him. Two 
theological faculties, those of the universities of Cologne 
and Lou vain, were the first to pronounce an official con- 
demnation of him and his writings. The latter were to be 
burnt, and their author compelled publicly to recant. This 
sentence, though pronounced after the disputation at 
Leipzig, related only to a small collection of earlier writings. 
In a published reply he dismissed, not without scorn, these 
learned divines, who, in a spirit of vain self-exaltation and 
without the smallest grounds, had presumed to pass 
sentence on Christian verities. Then boasting, he said, 
was empty wind ; then condemnation frightened him no 
more than the curse of a drunken woman. 

The first official pronouncement of a German bishop 
touched him more nearly. This was a decree, issued in 



LUTHER'S FURTHER WORK, WRITINGS, ETC. 163 

January 1520 by John, Bishop of Meissen, from his re- 
sidence at Stolpen. Herein, Luther's one statement about 
the cup, which the Church, as he said, would do well to 
restore to the laity, was picked out of his Sermon on the 
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The people were to be 
warned against the grievous errors and inconveniences 
which were bound to ensue from such a step ; and the ser- 
mon was to be suppressed. Luther was now classed as an 
open ally of the Hussites, whose very ground of contention 
was the cup. Duke George in alarm complained of him to 
the Elector Frederick. It was rumoured about him even 
that he had been born and educated among the Bohemians. 
To this episcopal note, which he ridiculed in a pun, 
Luther published a short and pungent reply in Latin and 
German. He was particularly indignant that this occasion 
should have been seized to tax his sermon with false 
doctrine, since the wish he there expressed did not contain, 
as even his enemies must admit, anything contrary to any 
dogma of the Church. For his enemies, no doubt, this one 
point was of more practical importance than many devia- 
tions from orthodoxy with which they might have reproached 
him in his doctrine of salvation ; for it concerned a jealously 
guarded privilege of their priestly office, and was connected 
with the ' Bohemian heresy.' As for Huss, however, Luther 
now confessed without reserve the sympathy he shared with 
his evangelical teaching. He had learned to know him better 
since the Leipzig disputation. He now wrote to Spalatin : 
'I have hitherto, unconsciously, taught everything that 
Huss taught, and so did John Staupitz, in short we are all 
Hussites, without knowing it. Paul and Augustine are 
also Hussites. I know not, for very terror, what to think 
as to God's fearful judgments among men, seeing that the 
most palpable evangelical truth known for more than a 
century, has been burnt and condemned, and nobody has 
ever ventured to say so.' 

On the part of the Elector, Luther still continued to 

m2 



1 64 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

reap the benefit of that placid good- will which disregarded 
all attempts, either by friendly words or menaces, to set 
that prince against him. Luther for this thanked him 
publicly, without meeting with any demurrer from the 
Elector, as well in a dedication of the first part of his new 
work on the Psalms, which he had sent to the press early 
in 1519, as in another prefixed to his tract on Christian 
comfort, already noticed. This last work he had been 
encouraged to write by Spalatin, the confidant of the sick 
prince whom it was intended to please. In the dedication 
prefixed to the Psalms, he expressed his joy at hearing how 
Frederick had declared in a conversation reported by Stau- 
pitz, that all sermons, made by man's wit and uttering man's 
opinions, were cold and powerless, and the Scriptures alone 
inspired with such marvellous power and majesty that one 
must needs say, ' There is something more there than mere 
Scribe and Pharisee ; there is the finger of God ; ' and how, 
when Staupitz had concurred in the remark, the prince had 
taken his hand and said, ' Promise me that you will always 
think thus.' Luther also thanked Frederick for having, as 
all his subjects knew, taken more care of his safety than 
he had done himself. In his thoughtlessness, he himself 
had thrown the die, and had already prepared himself for 
the worst, and only hoped to be able to retire into some 
corner, when his prince had come forward as his champion. 

At the same time the Elector remained constant in 
his efforts to check the impetuosity of Luther. We have 
noticed how he encouraged him, through Spalatin, to peace- 
ful work in the service of Christian preaching. When the 
episcopal missive from Stolpen threatened to make the 
storm break out afresh, he sent, by Spalatin, an urgent 
exhortation to Luther to restrain his pen, and further 
advised him to send letters of explanation, in a conciliatory 
spirit, to Albert, Archbishop of Magdeburg and Mayence, 
and the Bishop of Merseburg. 

Luther wrote to both in a tone of perfect dignity. 



LUTHER'S FURTHER WORK, WRITINGS, ETC. 165 

He begged them not to lend an ear to the complaints and 
calumniations which were being circulated against him, 
especially in reference to giving the cup to the laity, and 
to the Papal power, until the matter had been seriously 
examined. He spoke at the same time of malicious 
accusers, who on those points held secretly the same 
opinions as himself. 

But from this contest with the Bishop of Meissen he 
refused to withdraw. To Spalatin he broke out again in 
February 1520, in terms more decided than any he had 
previously given vent to, and which led people to expect still 
sharper utterances. ' Do not suppose,' he said, ' that the cause 
of Christ is to be furthered on earth in sweet peace : the 
Word of God can never be set forth without danger and dis- 
quiet : it is a Word of infinite majesty, it works great things, 
and is wonderful among the great and the high ; it slew, as 
the prophet says (Psalm lxxviii. 31), the wealthiest of them, 
and smote down the chosen ones of Israel. In this matter 
one must either renounce peace or deny the Word ; the 
battle is the Lord's, who has not come to bring peace into 
the world.' Again he says : ' If you would think rightly of 
the Gospel, do not believe that its cause can be advanced 
without tumult, trouble, and uproar. You cannot make a 
pen out of a sword : the Word of God is a sword ; it is 
war, overthrow, trouble, destruction, poison ; it meets the 
children of Ephraim, as Amos says, like a bear on the road, 
or like a lioness in the wood.' Of himself he adds : ' I can- 
not deny that I am more violent than I ought to be ; they 
know it, and therefore should not provoke the dog. How 
hard it is to moderate one's heat and one's pen you can 
learn for yourself. That is the reason why I was always 
unwilling to be forced to come forward in public ; and the 
more unwilling I am, the more I am drawn into the contest ; 
that this happens so is due to those scandalous libels which 
are heaped against me and the Word of God. So shameful 
are they that, even if my heat and my pen did not carry 



166 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

me away, a very heart of stone would be moved to seize a 
weapon, how much more myself, who am hot and whose 
pen is not entirely blunt.' 

The two dignitaries of the Church answered not un- 
graciously. They merely expressed an opinion that he was 
too violent, and that his writings would have a questionable 
influence with the mass of the people. They refrained from 
giving judgment on the matter ; a proof that, in the Catholic 
Church in Germany, the questions raised by Luther could 
not then have been considered of such importance as the 
upholders of the strict Papal system maintained and desired. 
Even Albert, the Cardinal, Archbishop, and Primate of the 
German Church, ventured to speak of the whole question 
about the Divine or merely human right of the Papacy as 
an insignificant affair, which had but little to do with real 
Christianity, and therefore should never have become the 
occasion of such passionate dispute. 

From Eome was now awaited the supreme judicial 
decision as to Luther and his cause. The Pope had already 
in 1518 indicated clearly enough to Frederick the Wise in 
what sense he intended to give this decision. But it kept 
on being delayed, because, on the one hand, it still appeared 
necessary to act with caution and consideration, and, on 
the other, because Eoman arrogance continued to under- 
estimate the danger of the German movement. Meanwhile 
Eck, by a report of his disputation and by letters had 
stirred the fire at Eome. The theologians of Cologne and 
Louvain worked in the same direction, and called on the 
whole Dominican Order to assist them with their influence. 
The Papal pretensions which Luther had disputed were 
now for the first time proclaimed in all their fulness of 
audacity and exaggeration. Luther's old opponent Prierias, 
in a new pamphlet, extended them to the temporal as well 
as the spiritual sovereignty of the world ; the Pope, he 
said, was head of the Universe. Eck now devoted an entire 
treatise to justifying the Divine right of the Papal primacy, 



LUTHER'S FURTHER WORK, WRITINGS, ETC. 167 

resting his proofs boldly, and without any attempt at critical 
inquiry, on spurious old documents. With this book he 
hastened in February 1520 to Eome, in order personally 
to push forward and assist in publishing the bull of excom- 
munication which was to demolish his enemy and extinguish 
the flame he had kindled. 

But Luther's work, in proportion as it advanced and 
became bolder, had stirred already the minds of the people 
both wider and deeper. Opponents of Eome who had risen 
up against her in other quarters, on other grounds, and 
with other weapons, now ranged themselves upon his side. 
Among all alike the ardour of battle grew the more powerful 
and violent, the more it was attempted to smother them 
with edicts of arbitrary power. 



[68 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 



CHAPTEB VI. 

ALLIANCE WITH THE HUMANISTS AND THE NOBILITY. 

We have already seen how astonished Miltitz was at the 
sympathy with Luther which he found among all classes 
of the German people. The growth of this sympathy 
is shown in particular by the increasing number of printed 
editions of his writings ; the perfect freedom then enjoyed 
by the press contributed largely to their wide circulation. 
In 1520 alone there were more than a hundred editions of 
Luther's works in German. Though the ordinary book- 
trade as now carried on was then unknown, there were a 
multitude of colporteurs actively employed in going with 
books from house to house, some of them merely in the 
interests of their trade, others also as emissaries of those 
who were friends of the cause, thus intended to be furthered. 
As reading was a difficult matter to the masses, and even to 
many of the higher classes, there were travelling students 
who went about to different places, and proffered their 
assistance. The earnest, deeply instructive contents of 
Luther's small popular tracts met the needs of both the 
educated and uneducated classes, in a manner never done 
by any other religious writings of that time, and served to 
stimulate their appetite for more. And to this was added 
the strong impression produced directly on then minds by 
the elementary exposition of his doctrine, irreconcilable 
with all notions of the Church system hitherto prevailing, 
and stigmatised by his enemies as poison. All, in short, 
that this condemned heretic wrote, became dear to the 
hearts of the people. 



ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 169 

Luther found now, moreover, most valuable allies in the 
leading champions of that Humanistic movement, the im- 
portance of which, as regards the culture of the priesthood 
and the religious and ecclesiastical development of that time, 
we had occasion to notice during Luther's residence at the 
university of Erfurt. That Humanism, more than any- 
thing else, represented the general aspiration of the age to 
attain a higher standard of learning and culture. The 
alliance between Luther and the Humanists inaugurated 
and symbolised the union between this culture and the 
Evangelical Eeformation. 

Luther, even before entering the convent, had formed a 
friendship with at least some of the young 'poets,' or 
enthusiasts of this new learning. Later on, when, after the 
inward struggles and heart-searchings of those gloomy years 
of monastic experience, the light dawned upon him of his 
Scriptural doctrine of salvation, we find him expressing his 
sympathy and reverence for the two leading spirits of the 
movement, Eeuchlin and Erasmus ; and this notwithstand- 
ing the fact that he never approved the method of defence 
adopted by the supporters of the former, nor could ever 
conceal his dislike of the attitude taken up by Erasmus in 
regard to theology and religion. 

Meanwhile, such Humanists as wished to enjoy the ut- 
most possible freedom for their own learned pursuits flocked 
around Eeuchlin against his literary enemies, and cared 
very little about the authorities of the Church. The bold 
monk and his party excited neither their interest nor their 
concern. Many of them thought of him, no doubt, when 
he was engaged in the heat of the contest about indulgences, 
as did Ulrich von Hutten, who wrote to a friend : ' A quarrel 
has broken out at Wittenberg between two hot-headed 
monks, who are screaming and shouting against each 
other. It is to be hoped that they will eat one another up.' 
To such men the theological questions at issue seemed not 
worth consideration. At the same time they took care to 



i;o THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

pay all necessary respect to the princes of the Church, who 
had shown favour to them personally and to their learning, 
and did homage to them, notwithstanding much that must 
have shocked them in their conduct as ecclesiastics. Thus 
Hutten did not scruple to enter the service of the same 
Archbishop Albert who had opened the great traffic in 
indulgences in Germany, but who was also a patron of 
literature and art, and was only too glad to be recognised 
publicly by an Erasmus. We hear nothing of any remon- 
strances made to him by Erasmus himself. In the same 
spirit that dictated the above remark of Hutten, Mosellanus, 
who opened with a speech the disputation at Leipzig, wrote 
to Erasmus during the preparations for that event. There 
will be a rare battle, he said, and a bloody one, coming off 
between two Scholastics ; ten such men as Democritus 
would find enough to laugh over till they were tired. More- 
over, Luther's fundamental conception of religion, with his 
doctrine of man's sinfulness and need of salvation, so far 
from corresponding, was in direct antagonism with that 
Humanistic view of life which seemed to have originated 
from the devotion to classical antiquity, and to revive the 
proud, self-satisfied, independent spirit of • heathendom. 
Even in an Erasmus Luther had thought he perceived an 
inability to appreciate his new doctrine. 

Melancthon's arrival at Wittenberg was, in this respect, 
an event of the first importance. This highly-gifted young 
man, who had united in his person all the learning and 
culture of his time, whose mind had unfolded in such 
beauty and richness, and whose personal urbanity had so 
endeared him to men of culture wherever he went, now 
found his true happiness in that gospel and in that path of 
grace which Luther had been the first to make known. 
And whilst offering the right hand of fellowship to Luther, 
he continued working with energy in his own particular 
sphere, kept up his intimacy with his fellow-labourers 
therein, and won their respect and admiration. Humanists 



ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 171 

at a distance, meanwhile, must have noticed the fact, that 
the most violent attacks against Luther proceeded from 
those very quarters, as for instance, from Hoogstraten, and 
afterwards from the theological faculty at Cologne, where 
Eeuchlin had been the most bitterly persecuted. At length 
the actual details of the disputation between Luther and 
Eck opened men's eyes to the magnitude of the contest 
there waged for the highest interests of Christian life and 
true Christian knowledge, and to the greatness of the man 
who had ventured single-handed to wage it. 

At Erfurt Luther had found already in the spring of 
1518, on his return from the meeting of his Order at 
Heidelberg, in pleasing contrast to the displeasure he had 
aroused among his old teachers there, a spirit prevailing 
among the students of the university, which gave him hope 
that true theology would pass from the old to the young, 
just as once Christianity, rejected by the Jews, passed from 
them to the heathen. Those well-wishers and advisers who 
took his part at Augsburg, when he had to go thither to meet 
Caietan, were friends of Humanistic learning. Among the 
earliest of those, outside Wittenberg, who united that learning 
with the new tendency of religious teaching, we find some 
prominent citizens of the flourishing town of Nuremberg, 
where, as we have seen, Luther's old friend Link was also 
actively engaged. Already before the contest about in- 
dulgences broke out, the learned jurist Scheuerl of that 
place had made friends with Luther, whom the next year 
he speaks of as the most celebrated man in Germany. The 
most important of the Humanists there, Willibald Pirkheimer, 
a patrician of high esteem and an influential counsellor, 
and who had once held local military command, corre- 
sponded with Luther, and after learning from him the pro- 
gress of his views and studies concerning the Papal power, 
made his Leipzig opponent the object of a bitter anony- 
mous satire, 'The Polished Corner' (Eck). Another 
learned Niiremberger, the Secretary of the Senate, Lazarus 



172 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

Spengler, was on terms of close Christian fellowship with 
Luther : he published in 1519 a ' Defence and Christian 
Answer,' which contained a powerful and worthy vindication 
of Luther's popular tracts. Albert Diirer also, the famous 
painter, took a deep interest in Luther's evangelical doctrine, 
and revered him as a man inspired by the Holy Ghost. 
Among the number of theologians who ranked next to 
Erasmus, the well-known John Oecolampadius, then a 
preacher at Augsburg, and almost of the same age as 
Luther, came forward in his support, towards the end 
of 1519, with a pamphlet directed against Eck. Erasmus 
himself in 1518, at least in a private letter to Luther's 
friend Lange at Erfurt, of which the latter we may be sure 
did not leave Luther in ignorance, declared that Luther's 
theses were bound to commend themselves to all good men, 
almost without exception ; that the present Papal domina- 
tion was a plague to Christendom ; the only question was 
whether tearing open the wound would do any good, and 
whether it was not conceivable that the matter could be 
carried through without an actual rupture. 

Luther, on his part, approached Eeuchlin and Erasmus 
by letter. To the former he wrote, at the urgent entreaty 
of Melancthon, in December 1518, to the latter in the 
following March. Both letters are couched in the refined 
language befitting these learned men, and particularly 
Erasmus, and contain warm expressions of respect and 
deference, though in a tone of perfect dignity, and free 
from the hyperboles to which Erasmus was usually treated 
by his common admirers. At the same time Luther was 
careful indeed to conceal the other and less favourable side 
of his estimate of Erasmus, which he had already formed 
in his own mind and expressed to his friends. We can see 
how bent he was, notwithstanding, upon a closer intimacy 
with that distinguished man. 

Eeuchlin, then an old man, would have nothing to do 
with Luther and the questions he had raised. He even 



ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 173 




Fig. 19.— W. Pirkheimer. (From a Portrait by Albert Diirer.) 



174 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

sought to alienate his nephew Melancthon from him, fry 
bidding him abstain from so perilous an enterprise. 

Erasmus replied with characteristic evasion. He had 
not yet read Luther's writings, but he advised everyone to 
read them before crying them down to the people. He 
himself believed that more was to be gained by quietness 
and moderation than by violence, and he felt bound to 
warn him in the spirit of Christ against all intemperate and 
passionate language ; but he did not wish to admonish 
Luther what to do, but only to continue steadfastly what he 
was doing already. The chief thought to which he gives 
expression is the earnest hope that the movement kindled 
by Luther's writings would not give occasion to opponents 
to accuse and suppress the 'noble arts and letters.' A 
regard for these, which indeed were the object of his own 
high calling, was always of £>araniount importance in his 
eyes. Not content with attackhig by means of ridicule the 
abuses in the Church, Erasmus took a genuine interest in 
the improvement of its general condition, and in the eleva- 
tion and refinement of moral and religious life, as well as of 
theological science ; and the high esteem he enjoyed made 
him an influential man among even the superior clergy and 
the princes of the Church. But from the first he recognised, 
as he says in his letter to Lange, and possibly better than 
Luther himself, the difficulties and dangers of attacking 
the Church system on the points selected by Luther. And 
when Luther boldly anticipated the disturbances which the 
Word must cause in the world, and dwelt on Christ's saying 
that He had come to bring a sword, Erasmus shrank back 
in terror at the thought of tumult and destruction. Con- 
formably with the whole bent of his natural disposition and 
character, he adhered anxiously to the peaceful course of 
his work and the pursuit of his intellectual pleasures. 
Questions involving deep principles, such as those of the 
Divine right of the Papacy, the absolute character of 
Church authority, or the freedom of Christian judgment, as 



ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 175 

founded on the Bible, he regarded from aloof; notwith- 
standing that silence or concealment towards either party, 
when once these principles were publicly put in question, 
was bound to be construed as a denial of the truth. 

We shall see how this same standpoint, from which this 
learned man still retained his inward sympathy with Church 
matters, dictated further his attitude towards Luther and 
the Eeformation. For the present, Luther had to thank 
the good opinion of Erasmus, cautiously expressed though 
it was, for a great advancement of his cause. It was 
valuable to Luther in regard to those who had no personal 
knowledge of him, as giving them conclusive proof that his 
character and conduct were irreproachable. His influence 
is apparent in the answer of the Archbishop Albert to 
Luther, in its tone of gracious reticence, and its remarks 
about needless contention. Erasmus had written some 
time before to the Archbishop, contrasting the excesses 
charged against Luther with those of the Papal party, and 
denouncing the corruptions of the Church, and particularly 
the lack of preachers of the gospel. Much to the annoy- 
ance of Erasmus, this letter was published, and it worked 
more in Luther's favour than he wished. 

Those hopes which Luther had placed in the young 
students at Erfurt were shortly fulfilled by the so-called 
' poets ' beginning now to read and expound the New 
Testament. The theology, which, in its Scholastic and 
monastic form, they regarded with contempt, attracted 
them as knowledge of the Divine Word. Justus Jonas, 
Luther's junior by ten years, a friend of Eoban Hess, and 
one of the most talented of the circle of young ' poets,' 
now exchanged for theology the study of the law, which h3 
had already begun to teach. To his respect for Erasmus 
was now added an enthusiastic admiration for Luther, the 
courageous Erfurt champion of this new evangelical 
doctrine. A close intimacy sprang up between Jonas and 
Luther, as also between Jonas and Luther's friend Lange. 



176 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

Erasmus had persuaded him to take up theology ; Luther s 
on hearing of it in 1520, congratulated him on taking 
refuge from the stormy sea of law in the asylum of the 
Scriptures. 

None of the old Erfurt students, however, had culti- 
vated Luther's friendship more zealously than Crotus, his 
former companion at that university ; and this even from 
Italy, where his sympathies with Luther had been stirred 
by the news from Germany, and where he had learned to 
realise, from the evidence of his eyes, the full extent of the 
scandals and evils against which Luther was waging war. 
He, who in the ' Epistolse Virorum Obscurorum,' had failed 
to exhibit in his satire the solemn earnestness which recom- 
mended itself to Luther's taste and judgment, now openly 
declared his concurrence with Luther's fundamental ideas 
of religion and theology, and his high appreciation of Scrip- 
ture and of the Scriptural doctrine of salvation. He wrote 
repeatedly to him, reminding him of their days together at 
Erfurt, telling him about the ' Plague-chair ' at Eome, and 
the intrigues carried on there by Eck, and encouraging him 
to persevere in his work. Expressions common to the ' poets ' 
of his university days were curiously mingled in his letters 
with others of a religious kind. He would like to glorify, 
as a father of their fatherland, worthy of a golden statue 
and an annual festival, his friend Martin, who had been the 
first to venture to liberate the people of God, and show 
them the way to true piety. Not only from Italy, but also 
after his return, he employed his characteristic literary 
activity, by means of anonymous pamphlets, in the service 
of Luther. It was he who, towards the end of 1519, sent 
from Italy to Luther and Melancthon at Wittenberg, the 
Humanist theologian, John Hess, afterwards the reformer 
of the Church at Breslau. Crotus himself returned in the 
spring of 1520 to Germany, 

Here these Humanist friends of the Lutheran movement 
had already been joined by Crotus' personal friend, Ulrich 



ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. i 7 > 



von Hutten, who not only could wield his pen with more 
vigour and acuteness than almost all his associates, but who 
declared himself ready to take up the sword for the cause 

IrichmnWntten. 




Fig. 20. — Ulkich von Hutten. (From an old woodcut. 



he defended, and to call in powerful allies of his own class 
to the fight. He sprang from an old Franconian family, 
the heirs, not indeed of much wealth or property, but of an 
old knightly spirit of independence. Hatred of monasticism 



178 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

and all that belonged to it, must have been nursed by him 
from youth; for having been placed, when a boy, in a 
convent, he ran away with the aid of Crotus, when only 
sixteen. Sharing the literary tastes of his friend, he learned 
to write with proficiency the poetical and rhetorical Latin of 
the Humanists of that time. In spite of all his irregularities, 
adventures, and unsettlement of habits, he had preserved 
an elastic and elevated turn of mind, desirous of serving 
the interests of a ' free and noble learning,' and a knightly 
courage, which urged him to the fight with a frankness 
and straightforwardness not often found among his fellow- 
Humanists. Whilst laughing at Luther's controversy as a 
petty monkish quarrel, he himself dealt a heavy blow to the 
traditional pretensions of the Papacy by the republication of 
a work by the famous Italian Humanist Laurentius Yalla, 
long since dead, on the pretended donation of Constantine, 
in which the writer exposed the forgery of the edict pur- 
porting to grant the possession of Eome, Italy, and indeed 
the entire Western world to the Eoman see. This work 
Hutten actually dedicated to Pope Leo himself. But what 
distinguishod this knight and Humanist above all the others 
who were contending on behalf of learning and against the 
oppressions and usurpations of the Church and monasticism, 
were his thoroughly German sympathies, and his zeal for 
the honour and independence of his nation. He saw her 
enslaved in ecclesiastical bondage to the Papal see, and at 
the mercy of the avarice and caprice of Eome. He heard 
with indignation how scornfully the 'rough and simple 
Germans ' were spoken of in Italy, how even on German 
soil the Eoman emissaries openly paraded their arrogance, 
how some Germans, unworthy of the name, pandered to 
such scorn and contempt by a cringing servility which 
made them crouch before the Papal chair and sue for 
favour and office. He warned them to prepare for a mighty 
outburst of German liberty, already well-nigh strangled by 
Eome. At the same time he denounced the vices of his 



ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 179 

own countrymen, particularly that of drunkenness, and 
the proneness to luxury and usurious dealing in trade and 
commerce, all of which, as we have seen, had been com- 
plained of by Luther. Nor less than of the honour of 
Germany herself, was he jealous of the honour and power 
of the Empire. In all that he did he was guided, perhaps 
involuntarily, but in a special degree, by the principles and 
interests of knighthood. His order was indebted to the 
Empire for its chief support, although the imperial authority 
no less than that of his own class, had sunk in a great 
measure through the increasing power of the different 
princes. In the prosperous middle class of Germany he 
saw the spirit of trade prevailing to an excess, with its 
attendant evils. In the firmly- settled regulations of law 
and order, which had been established in Germany with 
great trouble at the end of the middle ages, he felt most 
out of his element : he longed rather to resort to the old 
method of force whenever he saw justice trampled on. And 
in this respect also Hutten proved true to the traditions of 
knighthood. 

But in the material power required to give effect to 
his ideas of reform in the kindred spheres of politics and 
of the Church in her external aspect, Hutten was entirely 
wanting. More than this, we fail to find in him any clear 
and positive plans or projects of reform, nor any such calm 
and searching insight into the relations and problems before 
him as was indispensable for that object. His call, how- 
ever rousing and stirring it was, died away in the distance 
of time and the dimness of uncertainty. 

Hutten found, however, an active and powerful friend, 
and one versed in war and politics, in Francis von Sickingen, 
the 'knight of manly, noble, and courageous spirit,' as an 
old chronicler describes him. He was the owner of fine 
estates, among them the strong castles of Landstuhl near 
Kaiser slautern, and Ebernburg near Kreuznach, and had 
already, in a number of battles conducted on his own 

n2 



180 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

account and to redress the wrongs of others, given ample 
proof of his energy and skill in raising hosts of rustic 
soldiery, and leading them with reckless valour, in pursuit 
of his objects, to the fray. Hutten won him over to support 
the cause of Keuchlin, still entangled in a prosecution by 
his old accusers of heresy, Hoogstraten and the Dominicans 
at Cologne. A sentence of the Bishop of Spires, rejecting the 
charges of his opponents, and mulcting them in the costs of 
the suit, had been annulled, at their instance, by the Pope 
Against them and against the Dominican Order in particular, 
Sickingen now declared his open enmity, and his sympathy 
with the ' good old doctor Eeuchlin.' In spite of delay 
and resistance, they were forced to pay the sum demanded. 
Meanwhile, no doubt under the influence of his friend 
Crotus, Hutten's eyes were opened about the monk Luther. 
During a visit in January 1520 to Sickingen at his castle of 
Landstuhl, he consulted with him as to the help to be given 
to the man now threatened with excommunication, and 
Sickingen offered him his protection. Hutten at the same 
time proceeded to launch the most violent controversial 
diatribes and satires against Eome ; one in particular, 
called ' The Roman Trinity,' wherein he detailed in striking 
triplets the long series of * Eomish pretensions, trickeries, 
and vexatious abuses. At Easter he held a personal inter- 
view at Bamberg with Crotus, on his return from Italy. 

For the furtherance of their objects and desires, in 
respect to the affairs of Germany and the Church these 
two knights placed high hopes in the new young Emperor, 
who had left Spain, and on the 1st of July landed 
on the coast of the Netherlands. Sickingen had earned 
merit in his election. He had hoped to find in him 
a truly German Emperor, in contrast to King Francis 
of France, who was a competitor for the imperial crown. 
The Pope, as we have seen, had opposed his election ; his 
chief advocate, on the contrary, was Luther's friend, the 
Elector Frederick. Support was also looked for from 



ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 181 

Charles' brother Ferdinand, as being a friend of arts and 
letters. Hutten even hoped to obtain a place at his court. 
On this side, therefore, and from these quarters, Luther 
was offered a friendly hand. 



FRANCLSCVS^VON ^SIGKINGEN 




Fig. 21.— Francis von Sickingen. (From an old engraving.) 

We hear Hutten first mentioned by Luther in February 
1520, in connection with his edition of the work of Valla. 
This work, though published two years before, had been 



1 82 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

made known to Luther then, for the first time, by a friend. 
It had awakened his keenest interest ; the falsehoods ex- 
posed in its pages confirmed him in his opinion that the 
Pope was the real Antichrist. 

Shortly after, a letter from Hntten reached Melancthon, 
containing Sickingen's offer of assistance ; a similar com- 
munication forwarded to him some weeks before, had never 
reached its destination. Sickingen had charged Hutten 
to write to Luther, but Hutten was cautious enough 
to make Melancthon the medium, in order not to let 
his dealings with Luther be known. Sickingen, he wrote, 
invited Luther, if menaced with danger, to stay with him, 
and was willing to do what he could for him. Hutten added 
that Sickingen might be able to do as much for Luther as 
he had done for Eeuchlin ; but Melancthon would see for 
himself what Sickingen had then written to the monks. 
He spoke, with an air of mystery, of negotiations of the 
highest importance between Sickingen and himself; he 
hoped it would fare badly with the Barbarians, that is, the 
enemies of learning, — and all those who sought to bring 
them under the Romish 3 T oke. With such objects in view, he 
had hopes even of Ferdinand's support. Crotus, meanwhile, 
after his interview with Hutten at Bamberg, advised Luther 
not to despise the kindness si Sickingen, the great leader 
of the German nobility. It was rumoured that Luther, if 
driven from Wittenberg, would take refuge among the 
Bohemians. Crotus earnestly warned him against doing so. 
His enemies, he said, might force him to do so, knowing, as 
they did, how hateful the name of Bohemian was in Ger- 
many. Hutten himself wrote also to Luther, encouraging 
him, in pious Scriptural language, to stand firm and perse- 
vere in working with him for the liberation of their father- 
land. He repeated to him the invitation of N., (he did not 
mention his name,) and assured him that the latter would 
defend him with vigour against his enemies of every kind. 

Another invitation, at the same time, and of the same 



ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 183 

purport, came to Luther from the knight Silvester von 
Schauenburg. He too had heard that Luther was going to 
the Bohemians. He was willing, however, to protect him 
from his enemies, as were also a hundred other nobles whom 
with God's hejp he would bring with him, until his cause 
was decided in a right and Christian manner. 

Whether Luther really entertained the thought of flying 
to Bohemia, we cannot determine with certainty. But we 
know with what seriousness, as early as the autumn of 1518, 
after he had refused to retract to the Papal legate, he 
anticipated the duty and necessity of leaving Wittenberg. 
How much more forcibly must the thoughts have re- 
curred to him, when the news arrived of the impending 
decision at Borne, of the warning received from there by 
the Elector, and of the protest uttered even in Germany, 
and by such a prince as Duke George of Saxony, against 
any further toleration of his proceedings. The refuge which 
Luther had previously looked for at Paris was no longer 
to be hoped for. Since the Leipzig disputation he had 
advanced in his doctrines, and especially in his avowed 
support of Huss, far beyond what the university of Paris 
either liked or would endure. 

Such then was Luther's position when he received these 
invitations. They must have stirred him as distinct mes- 
sages from above. The letters in which he replied to them 
have not been preserved to us. We hear, however, that 
he wrote to Hutten, saying that he placed greater hopes 
in Sickingen than in any prince under heaven. Schauen- 
burg and Sickingen, he says, had freed him from the fear of 
man ; he would now have to withstand the rage of demons. 
He wished that even the Pope would note the fact that he 
could now find protection from all his thunderbolts, not 
indeed in Bohemia, but in the very heart of Germany ; and 
that, under this protection, he could break loose against the 
Bomanists in a very different fashion to what he could now 
do in his official position. 



1 84 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

As he reviewed, in the course of the contest, the proceed- 
ings of his enemies, and was further informed of the conduct 
of the Papal see, the picture of corruption and utter worth- 
lessness, nay the antichristian character of the Church 
system at Eome, unfolded itself more and more painfully 
and fully before his eyes. The richest materials for this 
conclusion he found in the pamphlets of the writers already 
referred to, and in the descriptions sent from Italy by mer 
like Hess and others, who shared his own convictions. 

All this time, moreover, Luther's feelings as a German 
were more and more stirred within him, while thinking of 
what German Christianity in particular was compelled to 
suffer at the hands of Eome. A lively consciousness of this 
had been awakened in his mind since he Diet of Augsburg 
in 1518, with its protest against the claims of the Papacy, 
its statement of the grievances of the German nation, and 
the vigorous writings on that subject which were circulated 
at that time. He referred in 1519 to that Diet, as having 
drawn a distinction between the Eomish Church and the 
Eomish Curia, and repudiated the latter with its demands. 
As for the Eomanists, . who made the two identical, they 
looked on a German as a simple fool, a lubberhead, a dolt, a 
barbarian, a beast, and yet they laughed at him for letting 
himself be fleeced and pulled by the nose. Luther's words 
were now re-echoed in louder tones by Hutten, whose own 
wish, moreover, was to incite his fellow-countrymen, as 
such, to rise and betake themselves to battle. 

There were certain of the laity who had already brought 
these German grievances in Church matters before the Diets 
and who now gave vent in pamphlets to their denunciations 
of the corruption and tyranny of the Eomish Church. As for 
Luther, he valued the judgment of a Christian layman, who 
had the Bible on his side, as highly, and higher, than that 
of a priest and prince of the Church, and ascribed the true 
character of a priest to all Christians alike : these Estates 
of the Augsburg Diet he speaks of as ' lay theologians.' 



ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 1S5 

Leading laymen of the nobility now came forward and 
offered to assist him in his labours on behalf of the German 
Church. Both he and Melancthon placed their confidence 
also gladly in the new German Emperor. 

Several letters of Luther at this time, closely following 
on each other, express at once the keenest enthusiasm for 
the contest, and the idea of a Eeformation proceeding from 
the laity, represented, as he understood them, by their 
established authorities and Estates. 

We find in these letters powerful effusions of holy zeal 
and language full of Christian instruction, mingled with 
the most vehement outbursts of the natural passion which 
was boiling in Luther's breast. Compared with them, the 
cleverest controversial writings of the Humanists, and even 
the fiercest satires of Hutten, sound only like rhetoric and 
elaborate displays of wit. 

Luther, in his Sermon on Good Works, already noticed 
as so replete with wholesome doctrine and advice, had 
already complained that God's ministry was perverted into 
a means of supporting the lowest creatures of the Pope, 
and had declared that the best and only thing left was 
for kings, princes, nobles, towns, and parishes to set to 
work themselves, and ' make a breach in the abuse,' so 
that the hitherto intimidated clergy might follow. As for 
excommunication and threats, such things need not trouble 
them : they meant as little as if a mad father were to 
threaten his son who was guarding him. 

The sharpest replies on the part of Luther were next 
provoked by two writings which justified and glorified the 
Divine authority and power of the Papacy. One was by 
a Franciscan friar, Augustin von Alveld ; the other by 
Silvester Prierias, already mentioned, who was his most 
active opponent in this matter. 

Luther broke out against ' the Alveld Ass ' (as he called 
him in a letter to Spalatin-) in a long reply entitled ' The 
Popedom at Kome,' with the object of exposing once and 



186 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

finally the secrets of Antichrist. ' From Borne ' he says 
1 flow all evil examples of spiritual and temporal iniquity 
into the world, as from a sea of wickedness. Whoever 
mourns to see it, is called by the Komans a ' good Christian,' 
or in their language, a fool. It was a proverb among them 
that one ought to wheedle the gold out of the German 
simpletons as much as one could.' If the German princes 
and nobles did not 'make short work of them in good 
earnest,' Germany would either be devastated or would have 
to devour herself. 

Prierias' pamphlet provoked him to exclaim, in that 
same letter to Spalatin, ' I think that at Borne they are all 
mad, silly, and raging,- and have become mere fools, sticks 
and stones, hells and devils.' His remarks on this 
pamphlet, written in Latin, contain the strongest words 
that we have yet heard from his lips about the ' only means 
left,' and the ' short work ' to be made of* Borne. Em- 
perors, kings, and princes, he says, would yet have to take 
up the sword against the rage and plague of the Bomanists. 
* When we hang thieves, and behead murderers, and burn 
heretics, why do not we lay hands on these Cardinals and 
Popes and all the rabble of the Bomish Sodom, and bathe 
our hands in their blood ? ' What Luther now in reality 
wished to see done, was, as he goes on to say, that the 
Pope should be corrected as Christ commands men to deal 
with their offending brethren (St. Matth. xviii. 15 sqq.), and, 
if he neglected to hear, should be held as an heathen man 
and a publican. 

While these pages of Luther's were in the press, towards 
the middle of June, Hutten, full of hope himself, and 
carrying with him the hopes of Luther and Melancthon, 
set off on his journey to the Emperor's brother in the 
Netherlands, and, on his way, paid a visit at Cologne to the 
learned Agrippa von Nettesheim, accompanied, as the latter 
says, by a ' few adherents of the Lutheran party.' There, 
as Agrippa relates with terror, they expressed aloud their 



ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 187 

thoughts. * What have we to do with Eome and its Bishop ? ' 
they asked. ' Have we no Archbishops and Bishops in 
Germany, that we must kiss the feet of this one ? Let 
Germany turn, and turn she will, to her own bishops and 
pastors.' Hutten paid the expenses of this journey out of 
money given him by the Archbishop Albert ; between these 
two, therefore, the bonds of friendship were not yet broken. 
Albert was the first of the German bishops ; Hutten, and 
very possibly the Archbishop also, might reasonably sup- 
pose that a reform proceeding from the^Emperor and the 
Empire, might place him at the head of a German National 
Church. 

But Luther had already put his pen to a composition 
which was to summon the German laity to the grand work 
before them, to establish the foundations of Christian 
belief, and to set forth in full the most crying needs and 
aims of the time. He had resolved to give the strongest 
and amplest expression in his power to the truth for which 
he was contending. 



THE BREACH WITH ROME. 



CHAPTEE VII. 

luther's works to the christian nobility of the 
german nation, and on the babylonian captivity. 

In a dedication to his friend and colleague Amsdorf, 
prefixed to the first of these works, he begins, ' The time of 
silence is past, and the time for speaking is come.' He had 
several points, he tells us, concerning the improvement of 
the Christian condition, to lay before the Christian nobility 
of Germany ; perhaps God would help His Church through 
the laity, since the clergy had become entirely careless. If 
charged with presumption in venturing to address such 
high people on such great matters, so be it, then perhaps 
he was guilty of a folly towards his God and the world, 
and might one day become court-jester. But inasmuch as 
he was a sworn doctor of Holy Scripture, he rejoiced in the 
opportunity of satisfying his oath in this manner. 

He then turns to the ' Most illustrious, Most powerful 
Imperial Majesty, and to the Christian nobility of the 
German nation,' with the greeting, ' Grace and strength 
from God first of all, most illustrious, gracious, and beloved 
Lords ! ' 

The need and troubles of Christendom, and especially 
of Germany, constrained him, as he said, to cry to God 
that He might inspire some one to stretch out his hand to 
the suffering nation. His hopes were in the noble young 
blood now given by God as her head. He would likewise 
do his part. 

The Komanists, in order to prevent their being reformed, 



CRISIS OF SECESSION. 189 

had shut themselves within three walls. Firstly, they said, 
the temporal power had no rights over them, the spiritual 
power, hut the spiritual was above the temporal ; secondly, 
the Scriptures, which were sought to be employed against 
them, could only be expounded by the Pope ; thirdly, no 
one but the Pope could summon a Council. Against this, 
Luther calls to God for one of those trumpets which once 
blew down the walls of Jericho, in order to blow down also 
these walls of straw and paper. 

His assault upon the first wall was decisive for the rest. 
He accomplished it with his doctrine of the spiritual and 
priestly character of all Christians, who had been baptised 
and consecrated by the blood of Christ (1 Peter ii. 9 ; 
Eev. v. 10). Thus, according to Luther, they are all of 
one character, one rank. The only thing peculiar to the 
so-called ecclesiastics or priests, is the special office or work 
of ' administering the Word of God and the Sacraments ' 
to the congregation. The power to do this is. given, indeed, 
by God to all Christians as priests, but, being so given, 
cannot be assumed by an individual without the will and 
command of the community. The ordination of priests, as 
they are called, by a bishop can in reality only signify 
that, out of the collective body of Christians, all possessing 
equal power, one is selected, and commanded to exercise 
this power on behalf of the rest. They hold, therefore, this 
peculiar office, like their fellow-members of the community 
who are entrusted with temporal authority, namely, to wield 
the sword for the punishment of the bad and the protection 
of the good. They hold it, as every shoemaker, smith, or 
builder holds office in his particular trade, and yet all alike 
are priests. Moreover, this temporal magisterial power has 
the right to exercise its office free and unhindered in its 
own sphere of action ; no Pope or bishop must here inter- 
fere, no so-called priest must usurp it. 

As a consequence of this spiritual character of Chris- 
tians, the second wall was also doomed to fall. Christ 



190 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

said of all Christians, that they, shall all be taught of 
God (St. John vi. 45). Thus any man, however humble, 
if he was a true Christian, could have a right under- 
standing of the Scriptures ; and the Pope, if wicked and 
not a true Christian, was not taught of God. If the Pope 
alone were always in the right, one would have to pray 
' I believe in the Pope at Koine,' and the whole Christian 
Church would then be centred in one man, which would 
be nothing short of devilish and hellish error. After 
this the third wa)l fell by itself. For, says Luther, when 
the Pope acts against the Scriptures, it is our duty to stand 
by the Scriptures and to punish him as Christ taught us to 
punish offending brethren (St. Matthew xviii. 17), when He 
said, ' Tell it unto the Church.' Now the Church or Chris- 
tendom must be gathered together in a Council. And like 
as the most famous of the Councils, that of Nice, and others 
after it, had been summoned by the Emperor, so must every- 
one, as a true member of the whole body, and when 
necessary, do what he can to make it a really free Council : 
' which nobody can do so well as the temporal authorities, 
who meet these as fellow-Christians, fellow-priests.' Just 
as if a fire broke out in a city, no one, because he had 
not the power of the burgomaster, durst stand still and 
let it burn, but every citizen must run and call others to- 
gether, so was it in the spiritual city of Christ, if a fire of 
trouble and affliction should arise. The question as to the 
composition of such a Council Luther does not proceed to 
discuss. That he wished, however, the laity to be repre- 
sented, we may safely assume from the whole context, though 
it is doubtful how far he may then have thought of a repre- 
sentation of the temporal authorities as such, and, above 
all, of the Christian body collectively, through its political 
members. But the main point on which he insisted was, 
that the Council should be a free and really Christian one, 
bound by no oath to the Pope, fettered by no so-called Canon 
law, but subject only to the Word of God in Holy Writ, 



CRISIS OF SECESSION. 191 

Under twenty- six heads Luther then proceeds to enume- 
rate the points on which such a Council should treat, and 
which should be urged in particular in connection with the 
question of reform. 

The whole arrogance of the Papacy, the temporal pride 
with which the Pope clothed himself, the idolatry with which 
he was treated, were to Luther a scandal and unchristian. 
Lord of the universe, the Pope styled himself, and paraded 
about with a triple crown in all temporal splendour, and 
with an endless train of followers and baggage, whilst claim- 
ing to be the vicegerent of the Lord who wandered about 
in poverty, and gave Himself up to the Cross, and declared 
that His kingdom was not of this world. Clearly and fully 
Luther shows the various ways, embracing the whole life of 
the Church, in which Komish tyranny had enslaved the 
Churches of other countries, especially of Germany, and 
had turned them to account and plundered them : by means 
of fees and taxes of all kinds, by drawing away the trial of 
ecclesiastical cases to Eome, by accumulating benefices in 
the hands of Papal favourites of the worst description, by 
the unprincipled and usurious sale of dispensations, by 
the oath which made the bishops mere vassals of the. Pope, 
and effectually prevented all reform. In this greed for 
money in particular, and in the crafty methods of collecting 
it, Luther saw the genuine Antichrist, who, as Daniel had 
foretold, was to gather the treasures of the earth (Daniel 
xi. 8, 39, 43). 

To confront this oppression and these acts of usurpa- 
tion, Luther would not have men wait for a Council. As 
for these impositions and taxes, he says that every prince, 
noble, and town should straightway repudiate and forbid 
them. This lawless pillaging of ecclesiastical benefices and 
fiefs by Eome should be resisted at once by the nobility. 
Anyone coming from the Papal court to Germany with such 
claims, must be ordered to desist, or to jump into the nearest 
piece of water with his seals and letters and the ban of ex- 



1 92 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

communication. Luther insists especially on demanding, 
as Hutten had already demanded, that the individual 
Churches, and particularly those of Germany, should order 
and conduct their own affairs independently of Eome. 
The bishops were not to obtain their confirmation at 
Eome, but, as already decreed by the Nicene Council, from 
a couple of neighbouring bishops or an archbishop. The 
German bishops were to be under their own primate, who 
might hold a general consistory with chancellors and coun- 
sellors, to receive appeals from the whole of Germany. The 
Pope, in other respects, was still to be left a position of 
supremacy in the collective Christian Church, and the ad- 
judication of matters of importance on which the primates 
could not agree. One other matter Luther dwells on, as 
affecting the entire constitution of the Church. It is not 
the mere administrative and judicial functions that consti- 
tute the true meaning of office, whether in a priest, a bishop, 
or a Pope, but a constant service to God's Word. Luther 
therefore is anxious that the Pope should not be burdened 
with small matters. He calls to mind how once the Apostles 
would not leave the Word of God, and serve tables, but 
wished to give themselves to prayer and to the ministry of 
the Word (Acts vi. 2, 4). But he would have a clean sweep 
made of the so-called ecclesiastical law, contained in the 
law-books of the Church. The Scriptures were sufficient. 
Besides, the Pope himself did not keep that law, but pre- 
tended to carry all law in the shrine of his own heart. 

Consistently with all that he has said about the relative 
positions of the temporal and spiritual powers, Luther goes 
on to protest, on behalf especially of the German Empire, 
against the * overbearing and criminal behaviour ' of the 
Pope, who arrogates to himself power over the Emperor, 
and allows the latter to kiss his foot and hold his stirrup. 
Granted that he is superior to the Emperor in spiritual 
office, in preaching, in administering the Word of grace ; in 
other matters he is his inferior. 



CRISIS OF SECESSION 193 

But the most important demand advanced by Luther, 
while pushing further his inquiries into the moral and social 
regulations and condition of the Church, is the abolition of 
the celibacy of the clergy. If Popes and bishops wish to 
impose upon themselves the burden of an unmarried life, 
he has nothing to say to that. He speaks only of the clergy 
in general, whom God has appointed, who are needed by 
every Christian community for the service of preaching and 
the sacraments, and who must live and keep house amongst 
their fellow- Christians. Not an angel from Heaven, much 
less a Pope, dare bind this man to what God has never 
bound him, and thereby precipitate him into danger and 
sin. A limit at least must be imposed on monastic life. 
Luther would like to see the convents and cloisters turned 
into Christian schools, where men might learn the Scriptures 
and discipline, and be trained to govern others and to preach. 
He would further give full liberty to quit such institutions 
at pleasure. He reverts to the question of clerical celibacy, 
in lamenting the gross immoralities of the priesthood, and 
complaining that marriage was so frequently avoided on 
account simply of the responsibilities it entailed, and the 
restraints it imposed on loose living. 

Luther would abolish all commands to fast, on the 
ground that these ordinances of man are opposed to the 
freedom of the Bible. He would do away also with the 
multitude of festivals and holidays, as leading only to idle- 
ness, carousing, and gambling. He would check the foolish 
pilgrimages to Borne, on which so much money was wasted, 
whilst wife and child, and poor Christian neighbours were 
left at home to starve, and which drew people into so much 
trouble and temptation. As regards the management of 
the poor, Luther's requirements were somewhat stringent. 
All begging among Christians was to be forbidden ; each 
town was to provide for its own poor, and not admit strange 
beggars. As the universities at that time, no less than the 
schools, were in connection with the Church, Luther offers 

o 



l 9 4 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

some suggestions for their reform. He singles out the 
writings of the ancients which were read in the philosophical 
faculty, and others, which might he done away with as use- 
less or even pernicious. With regard to the mass of civil 
law, he agreed with the complaint often heard among 
Germans, that it had become a wilderness : each state 
should be governed, as far as possible, ' by its own brief laws.' 
For children, girls as well as boys, he would like to see a 
school in every town. It grieved him to see how, in the 
very heart of Christendom, the young folk were neglected 
and allowed to perish for lack of timely sustenance with the 
bread of the gospel. 

He reverts again to the question about the Bohemians, 
with a view to silencing at length the vile calumniations of 
his enemies. And in so doing he remarks of Huss, that 
even if he had been a heretic, * heretics must be conquered 
with the pen and not with fire. If to conquer them with 
fire were an art, the executioners would be the most learned 
doctors on the earth.' 

Lastly he refers briefly to the prevalent evils of worldly 
and social life ; to wit, the luxury in dress and food, the 
habits of excess common among Germans, the practice of 
usury and taking interest. He would like to put a bridle 
into the mouth of the great commercial firms, especially 
the rich house of Fugger ; for the amassing of such 
enormous wealth, during the life of one man, could never 
be done by right and godly means. It seemed to him ' far 
more godly to promote agriculture and lessen commerce.' 
Luther speaks in this as a man of the people, who were 
already suspicious about this accumulation of mone} 7 , from 
a right feeling really of the moral and economical dangers 
thence accruing to the nation, even if ignorant of the 
necessary relations of supply and demand. As to this, 
Luther adds : ' I leave that to the worldly-wise ; I, as a 
theologian, can only say, Abstain from all appearance of 
evil,' (1 Thessalonians v. 22.) 



CRISIS OF SECESSION. 195 

So wide a field of subjects did this little book embrace. 
We have only here mentioned the chief points. Luther 
himself acknowledges at the conclusion : ' I am well aware 
that I have pitched my note high, that I have proposed 
many things which will be looked upon as impossible, and 
have attacked many points too sharply. I am bound to add, 
that if I could, I would not only talk but act ; I would 
rather the world were angry with me than God.' But 
Eome always remained the chief object of his attacks. 
' Well then,' he says of her, ' I know of another little song 
of Eome ; if her ear itches for it, I will sing it to her and 
pitch the notes at their highest.' He concludes, ' God give 
us all a Christian understanding, and to the Christian 
nobility of the German nation, especially, a true spiritual 
courage to do their best for the poor Church. Amen.' <** 

Whilst Luther was working on this treatise, new dis- 
quieting rumours and remonstrances addressed from Kome 
to the Elector reached him through Spalatin. But with 
them came also that promise of protection from Schauen- 
burg. Luther answered Spalatin, ' The die is cast, I 
despise alike the wrath and the favour of Kome ; I will 
have no reconciliation with her, no fellowship.' Friends 
who heard of his new work grew alarmed ; Staupitz, even at 
tltie eleventh hour, tried to dissuade him from it. But be- 
fore August was far advanced, four thousand copies were 
already printed and published. A new edition was imme- 
diately called for. Luther now added another section 
repudiating the arrogant pretension of the Pope, that 
through his means the Koman Empire had been brought 
to Germany. 

Well might Luther's friend Lange call this treatise a 
war-trumpet. The Beformer, who at first merely wished 
to point out and open to men the right way of salvation, 
and to fight for it with the sword of his word, now stepped 
forward boldly and with determination, demanding the 
abolition of all unlawful and unchristian ordinances of 

o2 



196 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

the Kornish Church, and calling upon the temporal powei 
to assist him, if need be, with material force. The ground- 
work of this resolve had been laid, as we have seen, in 
the progress of his moral and religious convictions ; in 
the inalienable rights which belong to Christianity in 
general, and the mission with which God entrusts also the 
temporal power or state ; in the independence granted by 
Him to this power on its own domain, and the duties He 
has imposed upon all Christian authorities, even in regard 
to all moral and religious needs and dangers. But he denied 
altogether, and we may well believe him, that he had any 
wish to create disorder or disturbance ; his intention was 
merely to prepare the way for a free Council. Not indeed 
that he shrank from the thought of battle and tumult, 
should the powers whom he invoked meet with resistance 
from the adherents of Eome or Antichrist. As for himself, 
though forced to make such a stormy appearance, he had 
no idea of himself being destined to become the Eeformer, 
but was content rather to prepare the way for a greater 
man, and his thoughts herein turned to Melancthon. 
Thus he wrote to Lange these remarkable words : ' It may 
be that I am the forerunner of Philip, and like Elias, 
prepare the way for him in spirit and in strength, destroy- 
ing the people of Ahab' (1 Kings xviii). Melancthon, on 
the other hand, wrote to Lange just then about Luther, 
saying that he did not venture to check the spirit of Martin 
in this matter, to which Providence seemed to have appointed 
him. 

From the Electoral court Luther learned that his 
treatise was ' not altogether displeasing.' And just at this 
time he had to thank his prince for a present of game. 

There is no doubt that Luther received also from that 
quarter the advice to approach the Emperor, who had just 
arrived in Germany, and whom he had wished to address 
in his treatise, with a direct personal request for protection, 
to prevent his being condemned unheard. He addressed 



CRISIS OF SECESSION. 



197 



to him a well-considered letter, couched in dignified lan- 
guage. He issued at the same time a short public ' offer/ 




Fig. 22. — Title-page of the second edition of this Treatise, 
in a rather smaller size. 

appealing therein to the fact, that he had so long begged in 
vain for a proper refutation. These two writings were first 



198 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

examined and corrected by Spalatin, and so appeared only at 
the end of August, not, as is generally supposed, in the 
January of this year. Luther never received an answer to 
his letter to the Emperor, and therefore never heard how it 
was received. 

The dangers which threatened Luther, and through 
him also the honour and prosperity of his Order, affected 
further his companions and friends who belonged to it. 
And of this Miltitz took advantage to renew his attempts at 
mediation. He induced the brethren, at a convention of 
Augustinian friars held at Eisleben, to persuade Luther once 
more to write to the Pope, and solemnly assure him that 
he had never wished to attack him personally. A deputa- 
tion of these monks, with Staupitz and Link at their head, 
came to Luther at Wittenberg on the 4th or 5th of Sep 
tember, and received his promise to comply with their 
wishes. At this convention, Staupitz, who felt his strength 
no longer equal to the difficult questions and controversies 
of the time, had resigned his office as Vicar of the Order, 
and Link had succeeded him. Luther saw him now at 
Wittenberg for the last time. He retired in quiet seclusion 
to Salzburg, where the Archbishon was his personal friend. 

But Luther's spirit would not let him desist for a moment 
from prosecuting his contest with Eome. He had yet ' a 
little song ' to sing about her. He was in fact at work in 
August, while rumours were already afloat that Eck was on 
his way with the bull, upon a new tract, and had even begun 
to have it printed. It was to treat of the 'Babylonian 
Captivity of the Church,' taking as its subject the Christian 
sacraments. Luther knew that in this he cut deeper into 
the theological and religious principles of the Church, which 
had come under discussion in his quarrel with Borne, than 
in all his demands for reform, put forward in his address 
to the nobility. For while, in common with the Church 
herself, he saw in the Sacraments, instituted by Christ. 
the most sacred acts of worship, and the channels through 



CRISIS OF SECESSION. 199 

which salvation itself, forgiveness, grace, and strength are 
imparted from above, in those principles he saw them limited 
by man's caprice in their original scope and meaning; 
robbed of their true significance, and made the instruments of 
Papal and priestly domination, while other pretended sacra- 
ments were joined to them, never instituted by Christ. On 
this account he complained of the tyranny to which these 
sacraments, and with them the Church, were subject, of the 
captivity in which they lay. Against him were arrayed not 
only the hierarchy, but the whole forces of Scholastic learn- 
ing. He knew that what he now propounded would sound 
preposterous to these opponents ; he would make, he said, 
his feeble revilers feel their blood run cold. But he met 
them in the armour of profound erudition, and with learned 
arguments lucidly and concisely expressed in Latin. At 
the same time his language, where he explains the real 
essence of the sacraments, shows a clearness and religious 
fervour .which no layman could fail to understand. 

The subject of the deepest importance to Luther in this 
treatise was the sacrament of the altar. He dwells on the 
mutilated form, without the cup, in which the Lord's Supper 
was given to the laity ; on the doctrine invented about the 
change of the bread, instead of keeping to the simple word of 
Scripture ; and, lastly, on the substitution of a sacrifice, sup- 
posed to be offered to God by the priest, for the institution 
ordained by Christ for the nourishment of the faithful. 
The withholding of the cup he calls an act of ungodliness 
and tyranny, beyond the power of either Pope or Council to 
prescribe. Against the sacrifice of the mass he had pub- 
lished just before a sermon in German. He was well aware 
that his principles involved, as indeed he intended, a 
revolution of the whole service, and an attack on an 
ordinance, upon which a number of other abuses, of 
great importance to the hierarchy, depended. But he 
ventured it, because God's word obliged him to do it. So 
now he proceeds to describe, in contrast to this mass, the 



200 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

one of true Christian institution, and resting wholly, as he 
conceived it, on the words of Christ, when instituting the 
Last Supper, ' Take, and eat,' etc. Christ would here say, 
' See, thou poor sinner, out of pure love I promise to thee, 
before thou canst either earn or promise anything, forgiveness 
of all thy sins, and eternal life, and to assure thee of this 
I give here my Body and shed my Blood ; do thou, by my 
death, rest assured of this promise, and take as a sign my 
Body and my Blood.' 

For the worthy celebration of this mass, nothing is re- 
quired but faith, which shall trust securely in this promise ; 
with this faith will come the sweetest stirrings of the heart, 
which will unfold itself in love, and yearn for the good 
Saviour, and in Him will become a new creature. 

As regards baptism Luther lamented that it was no longer 
allowed to possess the true significance and value it ought to 
have for a man's whole life. Whereas in truth the person 
baptized received a promise of mercy from God, to which 
time after time, even from the sins of his future life, he might 
and was bound to turn, it was taught, that in sinning aftei 
baptism, the Christian was like a shipwrecked man, who, 
instead of the ship, could only reach a plank ; this being the 
sacrament of penance, with its accompanying outward for- 
malities. Whereas further, in true baptism he had vowed 
to dedicate his whole life and conduct to God, other vows of 
human invention were now demanded of him. Whereas he 
then became a full partaker of Christian liberty, he was now 
burdened with ordinances of the Church, devised by man. 

Concerning this sacrament of penance, with confession, 
absolution, and its other adjuncts, Luther rates at its full 
value the word of forgiveness spoken to the individual, and 
values also the free confession made to his Christian brother 
by the Christian seeking comfort. But confession, he said, 
had been perverted into an institution of compulsion and 
torture. Instead of leading the tempted brother to trust 
in God's mercy, he was ordered to perform acts of penance : 



CRISIS OF SECESSION. 201 

whereby nominally to give satisfaction to God, but in reality 
to minister to the ambition and insatiable avarice of the 
Eoman see. 

From all these abuses and perversions Luther seeks 
to liberate the sacraments, and restore them in their 
purity to Christians. Nevertheless, he takes care to insist 
on the fact that it is not the mere external ceremony, 
the act of the priest in administering, and the visible par- 
taking of the receiver, that make the latter a sharer in the 
promised grace and blessedness. This, he says, depends 
upon a hearty faith in the Divine promise. He who believes 
enjoys the benefit of the sacrament, even though its outward 
administration be denied him. 

The mediaeval Church ordained four other sacraments, 
namely, confirmation, marriage, consecration of priests, 
and extreme unction. But Luther refuses to acknow- 
ledge any of these as a sacrament. Marriage, he says, in 
its sacramental aspect, was not an institution of the New 
Testament, nor was it connected with any especial pro- 
mise of grace. It was but a holy moral ordinance of daily 
life, existing since the beginning of the world and among 
those who were not Christians as well as those who were. At 
the same time he takes the opportunity to protest against 
those human regulations with which even this ordinance had 
been invaded by the Eomish Church, especially against the 
arbitrary obstacles to marriage she had created. Even these 
were made a source of revenue to her, by the granting of 
dispensations. For the other three sacraments there was no 
especial promise. In the Epistle of St. James (v. 14), where 
it speaks of anointing the sick with oil, the allusion is not to 
extreme unction to the dying, but to the exercise of that won- 
derful Apostolic gift of healing the sick through the power of 
faith and prayer. With regard to the consecration of priests, 
Luther repeats the principles laid down in his address to 
the nobility. Ordination consists simply of this, that out 
of a community, all of whom are priests, one is chosen for 



202 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

the particular work of administering God's word. If, aa 
in consecration, the hand is laid upon him, this is a 
human custom and not instituted by the Lord Himself. 
But in truth, says Luther, the outrageous tyranny of the 
clergy, with their priestly bodily anointing, their tonsure, 
and their dress, would arrogate a higher position than other 
Christians anointed with the Spirit ; these are counted 
almost as unworthy as dogs to belong to the Church. 
And most seriously he warns a man not to strive for that 
outward anointing, unless he is earnestly intent on the true 
service of the gospel, and has disclaimed all pretension to 
become, by consecration, better than lay Christians. 

In conclusion Luther declares : he hears that Papal ex- 
communication is prepared for him, to force him to recant. 
In that case this little treatise shall form part of his re- 
cantation. After that he will soon publish the rest, the like 
of which has never been seen or heard by the Eomish see. 

In the beginning of October, probably on the 6th of 
that month, the book was issued. Luther had heard some 
ten days before that Eck had actually arrived with the 
bull. He had already caused it to be posted publicly at 
Meissen on September 21. Early in October he sent a 
copy of it also to the university of Wittenberg. 



303 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

f 

THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION, AND LUTHER'S REPLY. 

At Kome, the bull, now newly arrived in Germany, had been 
published as early as June 16. It had been considered, 
when at length, under the pressure of the influences de- 
scribed above, the subject was taken up in earnest, very 
carefully in the Papal consistory. The jurists there wer \ 
of opinion that Luther should be cited once more, buj 
their views did not prevail. As for the negotiations, con 
ducted through Miltitz, for an examination of Luther beforj 
the Archbishop of Treves, no heed was now paid to the 
affair. 

The bull begins with the words, ' Arise, Lord, and 
avenge Thy cause.' It proceeds to invoke St. Peter, SA-. 
Paul, the whole body of the saints, and the Church. A. 
wild boar had broken into the vineyard of the Lord, a wiM 
beast was there seeking to devour &c. Of the heresy against 
which it was directed, the Pope, as he states, had additional 
reason to complain, since the Germans, among whom it 
had broken out, had always been regarded by him with 
such tender affection : he gives them to understand that 
they owed the Empire to the Eomish Church. Forty-one 
propositions from Luther's writings are then rejected and 
condemned, as heretical or at least scandalous and corrupt- 
ing, and his works collectively are sentenced to be burnt. 
A.s to Luther himself, the Pope calls God to witness that he 
has neglected no means of fatherly love to bring him into 
the right way. Even now he is ready to follow towards 
him the example of Divine mercy which wills not the death 



204 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

of a sinner, but that he should be converted and live ; and 
so once more he calls upon him to repent, in which case he 
will receive him graciously like the prodigal son. Sixty 
days are given him to recant. But if he and his adherents 
will not repent, they are to be regarded as obstinate heretics 
and withered branches of the vine of Christ, and must be 
punished according to law. No doubt the punishment of 
burning was meant ; the bull in fact expressly condemns 
the proposition of Luther which denounces the burning of 
heretics. 

All this was called then at Home, and has been called 
even latterly by the Papal party, ' the tone rather of fatherly 
sorrow than of penal severity.' The means by which the 
bull had been brought about, made it fitting that Eck him- 
self should be commissioned with its circulation throughout 
Germany, and especially with its publication in Saxony. 
More than this, he received the unheard of permission to 
denounce any of the adherents of Luther at his pleasure, 
when he published the bull. 

Accordingly, Eck had the bull publicly posted up in 
September at Meissen, Merseburg, and Brandenburg. He 
was charged, moreover, by a Papal brief, in the event of 
Luther's refusing to submit, to call upon the temporal 
power to punish the heretic. But at Leipzig, where the 
magistrate, by order of Duke George, had to present him 
with a goblet full of money, he was so hustled in the streets 
by his indignant opponents, that he was forced to take refuge 
in the Convent of St. Paul, and hastened to pursue his 
journey by night, whilst the city officials rode about the 
neighbourhood with the bull. A number of Wittenberg stu- 
dents, adds Miltitz, made their appearance also at Leipzig, 
who ' behaved in a good-for-nothing way towards him.' 

At Wittenberg, where the publication of the bull rested 
with the university, the latter notified its arrival to the 
Elector, and objected for various reasons to publish it, 
alleging, in particular, that Eck, its sender, was not fur- 



THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 205 

nislied with proper authority from the Pope. Luther now 
for the first time felt himself, as he wrote to Spalatin, really 
free, being at length convinced that the Popedom was 
Antichrist and the seat of Satan. He was not at all dis- 
couraged by a letter sent at this time by Erasmus from 
Holland to Wittenberg, saying that no hopes could be placed 
in the Emperor Charles, as he was in the hands of the 
Mendicant Friars. As for the bull, so extraordinary were 
its contents, that he wished to consider it a forgery. 

Still the promise which Luther had given to his Augus- 
tinian brethren, only a few weeks before, under pressure 
from Miltitz, remained as yet unfulfilled. Nor did Miltitz 
himself wish the threads of the web then spun to slip from 
his fingers. Even at this hour, with the consent and at 
the wish of the Elector, an interview had been arranged 
between Miltitz and Luther at the Castle of Lichtenberg 
(now Lichtenburg, in the district of Torgau), where the 
monks of St. Antony were then housed. Just as Miltitz, as 
we have seen, had thought to be able to avert the bull by 
getting Luther to write a letter to the Pope, so now he pro- 
mised the Elector still to conciliate the Pope by that means. 
Only the letter was to be dated back to the time, before the 
publication of the bull, when Luther first gave his consent 
to write it. Its substance was to be as then agreed upon ; 
Luther, as Miltitz expressed it, was to ' eulogise the Pope per- 
sonally in a manner agreeable to him,' and at the same time 
submit to him an historical statement of what he had done. 
Luther consented to publish a letter in these terms, in Latin 
and German, under date of September 6, and immediately 
gave effect to his promise. 

It is hardly conceivable how Miltitz could still have nur- 
tured such a hope. Neither his wish to ingratiate himself 
with the Elector Frederick, and to checkmate the plans of 
Eck whom he detested, nor his personal vanity and flippancy 
of character, are sufficient to account for it. He must 
have learnt from his own previous personal intercourse with 



206 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

the Pope, and his experiences of the Papal court, that Leo 
did not take up Church questions and controversies so 
gravely and so seriously as not to remain fully open all the 
time to influences and considerations of other kinds, and 
that around him were parties and influential personages, 
arrayed in mutual hostility and rivalry. He must have been 
strangely ignorant of the state of things at Eome. But as 
to Luther and his cause there was no longer any hesitation 
in that quarter. 

In what sense Luther himself was willing to comply with 
the demand of Miltitz, the contents of his letter suffice to 
show. He makes it clear that nothing was further from his 
intention than to appease the angry Pontiff by any dexterous 
artifices or concealments. The assurance required from 
him, that he had no wish to attack the Pope personally, he 
construes in its literal terms, apart altogether from the official 
character and acts of Leo. And in fact against his personal 
character and conduct he had never said a word. But he 
takes this opportunity, at the same time, of speaking to 
him plainly, as a Christian is bound to do to his fellow- 
Christian; of repeating to him, face to face, the severest 
charges yet made by him against the Bomish chair ; of ex- 
cusing Leo's own conduct in this chair simply and solely on 
the ground that he regarded him as a victim of the monstrous 
corruption which surrounded him, and of warning him once 
more against it as a brother. He tells him to his face that 
he himself, the Holy Father, must acknowledge that the 
Papal see was more wicked and shameful than any Sodom, 
Gomorrah, or Babylon ; that God's wrath had fallen upon 
it without ceasing ; that Borne, which had once been the 
gate of heaven, was now an open jaw of hell. Most earnestly 
he warns Leo against his flatterers, — the ' ear-ticklers ' who 
would make him a God. He assures him that he wishes him 
all that is good, and therefore he wishes that he should not 
be devoured by these jaws cf hell, but on the contrary, 
should be freed from this godless idolatry of parasites, and 



THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 



207 



be placed in a position where he would be able to live on some 
smaller ecclesiastical preferment, or on his own patrimony. 
As for the historical retrospect which Miltitz wanted, and 




Fig. 23. — Title-page, slightly reduced, of trie original Tract ' On trie Liberty 
of a Christian Man.' The Saxon swords are represented above, and 
the arms of Wittenberg below. 

which Luther briefly appends to this letter, all that the latter 
says in vindication of himself is, that it was not his own 
fault, but that of his enemies, who had driven him further 



208 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

and further onward, that ' no small part of the unchristian 
doings at Rome had been dragged to light.' 

Luther sent with this letter, as a present to the Pope, a 
pamphlet entitled ' On the Liberty of a Christian Man.' This 
is no controversial treatise intended for the great struggle of 
churchmen and theologians, but a tract to minister to ' simple 
men.' For their benefit he wished to describe compen- 
diously the * sum of a Christian life ' ; to deal thoroughly 
with the question, ' What was a Christian ? and how he was 
to use the liberty which Christ had won and given to him.' 

He premises as an axiom that a Christian is a free lord 
over all things, and subject to nobody. He considers, first 
of all, the new, inner, spiritual man. and asks what makes 
him a good and free Christian. Nothing external, he says, 
can make him either good or free. It does not profit the soul 
if the body puts on sacred vestments, or fasts, or prays with 
the lips. To make the soul live, and be good and free, there 
is nothing else in heaven or on earth but the Holy Scriptures, 
in other words, God's Word of comfort by His dear Son 
•Jesus Christ, through Whom our sins are forgiven us. In 
this Word the soul has perfect joy, happiness, peace, light, 
and all good things in abundance. And to obtain this, 
nothing more is required of the soul than what is told us in 
the Scriptures, namely, to give itself to Jesus with firm faith 
and to trust joyfully in Him. At first, no doubt, God's com- 
mand must terrify a man, seeing that it must be fulfilled, or 
man condemned ; but when once he has been brought 
thereby to recognise his own worthlessness, then comes 
God's promise and the gospel, and says, Have faith in 
Christ, in Whom I promise thee all grace ; believe in Him, 
and thou hast Him. A right faith so blends the son! with 
God's word, that the virtues of the latter become her own, 
as the iron becomes glowing hot from its union with the 
fire. And the soul becomes joined to Christ "as a bride to the 
bridegroom ; her wedding-ring is faith. All that Christ, the 
rich and noble bridegroom possesses, He makes His bride's ; 



THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 209 

all that she has, He' takes unto Himself. He takes upon 
Himself her sins, so that they are swallowed up in Him and 
in His unconquerable righteousness. Thus the Christian is 
exalted above all things, and becomes a lord ; for nothing 
can injure his salvation ; everything must be subject to him 
and help towards his salvation ; it is a spiritual kingdom. 
And thus all Christians are priests ; they can all approach 
God through Christ, and pray for others. ' Who can com- 
prehend the honour and dignity of a Christian ? Through 
his kingship he has power over all things, through his 
priesthood he has power over God, for God does what he 
desires and prays for.' 

But the Christian, as Luther states in his second axiom, 
is not only this new inner man. He has another will in 
his flesh, which would make him captive to sin. Accord- 
ingly, he dare not be idle, but must work hard to drive out 
evil lusts and mortify his body. He lives, moreover, among 
other men on earth, and must labour together with them. 
And as Christ, though Himself full of the Kingdom of God, 
for our sake stripped Himself of His power and ministered 
as a servant, so should we Christians, to whom God through 
Christ has given the Kingdom of all goodness and blessed- 
ness, and therewith all that is sufficient to satisfy us, do freely 
and cheerfully for our heavenly Father whatever pleases 
Him, and do unto our neighbours as Christ has done for us. 
In particular, we must not despise the weakness and weak 
faith of our neighbour, nor vex him with the use of our 
liberty, but rather minister with all we have to his improve- 
ment. Thus the Christian, who is a free lord and master, 
becomes a useful servant of all and subject to all. But he 
does these works, not that he may become thereby good and 
blessed in the sight of God ; he is already blessed through his 
faith, and what he does now he does freely and gratuitously. 
Luther thus sums up in conclusion : ' A Christian lives 
not in himself, but in Christ and in his neighbour ; in Christ 
through faith, in his neighbour through love. Through faith 

p 



2io THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

he rises above himself in God, from God he descends again 
below himself through love ; and yet remains always in God 
and in godlike love.' 

This tract was a remarkable pendant to Luther's re- 
markable letter to the Pope. His Holiness, so he wrote to 
him in his dedication, might taste from its contents what 
kind of occupation the author would rather, and might 
with more profit, be engaged in, if only the godless Papal 
flatterers did not hinder him. And in fact the Pope could 
plainly see from it how Luther lived and laboured, with 
his inmost being, in these profound but simple ideas of 
Christian truth, and how he was inwardly compelled and 
delighted to represent them in their noble simplicity. 
The whole tone and tenor of this dedication, so tranquil, 
fervent, and tender, shows further what profound peace 
reigned in the soul of this vehement champion of the faith, 
and what happiness the excommunicated heretic found 
in his God. Next to Luther's Address to the German 
Nobility and his Babylonian Captivity, this tract is one of 
the most important contributions of his pen to the cause cf 
the Reformation. It is clear from its pages that when 
Luther wrote his letter, at the request of Miltitz, to tha 
Pope, he had no thought of making peace with the Papacy, 
or of even a moment's truce in the campaign. 

The bull of excommunication he met in the manner 
intimated to Spalatin from the first. He launched a short 
tract against it, ' On the new Bull and Falsehoods of Eck,' 
treating it as Eck's forgery. This he followed up with 
another tract in German and Latin, ' Against the Bull of 
Antichrist.' He was resolved to unmask the blindness and 
wickedness of the Roman evil-doers. He saw partly his 
own real doctrines perverted, partly the Christian and 
Scriptural truth that his doctrines contained, stigmatised as 
heresy and condemned. He declared that if the Pope did 
not retract and condemn this bull, no one would doubt that 
he was the enemy of God and the disturber of Christianity, 



THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 211 

He then solemnly renewed, on November 17, the appeal to 

a Council, which he had made two years before. But how 

was his attitude changed since then ! He, the accused and 

condemned heretic, now himself proclaims condemnation 

and ruin to his enemy, the antichristian power that seeks to 

domineer the world. Nor is it only from a future Council, 

and one constituted as the previous great assemblies of the 

Church, that he expects and demands protection for himself 

and the Christian truth ; again and again he calls upon the 

Christian laity to assist him. Thus in his appeal now 

published, he invites the Emperor Charles, the Electors and 

Princes of the Empire, the counts, barons, and nobles, the 

town councils, and all Christian authorities throughout 

Germany, to support him and his appeal, that so the true 

Christian belief and the freedom of a Council might be 

saved. Similarly, in the Latin edition of his tract against the 

bull, he calls upon the Emperor Charles, on Christian kings 

and princes and all who believe in Christ, together with 

all Christian bishops and learned doctors, to resist the 

iniquities of the Popedom. In his German version he 

defends himself against the charge of stirring up the laity 

against the Pope and priesthood • but he asks if, indeed, 

the laity will be reconciled, or the Pope excused, by the 

command to* burn the truth. The Pope himself, he says, 

and his bishops, priests, and monks are wrestling to their 

own downfall, through this iniquitous bull, and want to 

bring upon themselves the hatred of the laity. ' What 

wonder were it, should princes, nobles, and laymen beat 

them on the head, and hunt them out of the country ? ' 

Hutten now followed with a stormy demand for a general 
rising of Germany against the tyranny of Eome, whose 
hirelings and emissaries were to be chased away by main 
force. When two papal legates, Aleander and Caraccioli, 
appeared on the Ehine to execute the bull and work upon 
the Emperor in person, he was anxious to strike a blow at 
them on his own account, little good as, on calm reflection, 

P2 



212 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

it was evident could have come of it. Luther, on hearing 
of it, could not refrain remarking in a letter to Spalatin, 
' If only he had caught them ! ' 

Luther however persisted in repeating to himself and his 
friends the warning of the Psalmist, ' Put not your trust in 
princes, nor in any child of man, for there is no help in them.' 
Nay, when Spalatin, who had gone with the Elector to the 
Emperor, told him how little was to be hoped for from the 
latter, he expressed to him his joy at finding that he too had 
learned the same lesson. God, he said, would never have 
entrusted simple fishermen with the Gospel, if it had needed 
worldly potentates to propagate it. It was to the Last Day 
that he looked with full confidence for the overthrow of Anti- 
christ. And, indeed, his idea that Antichrist had long 
reigned at Kome was connected in his mind with the belief 
that the Last Day was close at hand. Of this, as he wrote 
to Spalatin, he was convinced, and for many strong reasons. 

And in fact the Emperor Charles, before leaving the 
Netherlands, on his journey to Aix-la-Chapelle to be crowned, 
had already been induced by Aleander to take his first step 
against Luther. He had consented to the execution of the 
sentence in the bull, condemning Luther's works to be 
burnt, and had issued orders to that effect throughout 
the Netherlands. They were burnt in public at Louvain, 
Cologne, and Mayence. At Cologne this was done while he 
was staying there. It was in this town that the two legates 
approached the Elector Frederick with the demand to have 
the same done in his territory, and to execute due punish- 
ment on the heretic himself, or at least to keep him close 
prisoner, or deliver him over io the Pope. Frederick however 
refused, saying that Luther must first be heard by impartial 
judges. Erasmus also, who was then staying at Cologne, 
expressed himself to the same effect, in an opinion obtained 
from him by Frederick through Spalatin. At an interview 
with the Elector he said to him, ' Luther has committed two 
great faults ; he has touched the Pope on his crown and the 



THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 213 

monks on their bellies.' The Archbishop of Mayence, Cardinal 
Albert, received directions from the Pope to take more deci- 
sive and energetic steps against Hutten as well. The burning 
of Luther's books at Mayence was effected without hindrance, 
though Hutten was able to inform Luther that, according 
to the account received from a friend, Aleander narrowly 
escaped stoning, and the multitude were all the more in- 
flamed in favour of Luther. The legates in triumph pro- 
ceeded to carry out their mission elsewhere 

Luther, however, lost no time in following up their 
execution of the bull with his reply. On December 10 he 
posted a public announcement that the next morning, at 
nine o'clock, the antichristian decretals, that is, the Papal 
law-books, would be burnt, and he invited all the Wittenberg 
students to attend. He chose for this purpose a spot in 
front of the Elster Gate, to the east of the town, near the 
Augustinian convent. A multitude poured forth to the 
scene. "With Luther appeared a number of other doctors and 
masters, and among them Melancthon and Carlstadt. After 
one of the masters of arts had built up a pile, Luther laid the 
decretals upon it, and the former applied the fire. Luther 
then threw the Papal bull into the flames, with the words 
' Because thou hast vexed the Holy One of the Lord, 1 let the 
everlasting fire consume thee.' Whilst Luther with the other 
teachers returned to the town, some hundreds of students 
remained upon the scene, and sang a Te Deum, and a 
Dirge for the decretals. After the ten o'clock meal, some of 
the young students, grotesquely attired, drove through the 
town in a large carriage, with a banner emblazoned with 
a bull four yards in length, amidst the blowing of brass 
trumpets and other absurdities. They collected from all 
quarters a mass of Scholastic and Papal writings, and 
especially those of Eck, and hastened with them and the 

1 It is obvious that he refers to Christ, who is spoken of in Scripture as 
the Holy One of God (St. Mark i. 24, Acts ii. 27), not, as ignorance and 
malice have suggested, to himself. 



214 PHE BREACH WITH ROME. 

bull, to the pile, which their companions had meanwhile 
kept alight. Another Te Deum was then sung, with a 
requiem, and the hymn ' du armer Judas.' 

Luther at his lecture the next day told his hearers with 
great earnestness and emotion what he had done. The 
Papal chair he said, would yet have to be burnt. Unless 
with all their hearts they abjured the Kingdom of the Pope, 
they could not obtain salvation. 

He next announced and justified his act in a short treatise 
entitled ' Why the Books of the Pope and his disciples were 
burnt by Dr. Martin Luther.' ' I, Martin Luther,' he says, 
* doctor of Holy Scripture, an Augustinian of Wittenberg, 
make known hereby to everyone, that by my wish, advice, 
and act, on Monday after St. Nicholas' day, in the year 1520, 
the books of the Pope of Koine, and of some of his disciples, 
were burnt. If anyone wonders, as I fully expect they will, 
and asks for what reason and by whose command I did it, 
let this be his answer.' Luther considers it his bounden duty, 
as a baptized Christian, a sworn doctor of Holy Scripture, 
and a daily preacher, to root out, on account of his office, all 
unchristian doctrines. The example ol others, on whom the 
same duty devolved, but who shrank from doing as he did, 
would not deter him. 'I should not,' he says, 'be, excused 
in my own sight ; of that my conscience is assured, and my 
spirit, by God's grace, has been roused to the necessary 
courage.' He then proceeds to cite from the law-books thirty 
erroneous doctrines, in glorification of the Papacy, which de- 
served to be burnt. The sum total of this Canon law was as 
follows : * The Pope is a God on earth, above all things, 
heavenly and earthly, spiritual and temporal, and every- 
thing is his, since no one durst say, What doest thou ? ' This, 
says Luther, is the abomination of desolation (St. Matth. 
xxiv. 15), or mother words Antichrist (2 Thess. ii. 4). 

Simultaneously with this, he set out in a longer and 
exhaustive work the ' ground and reason ' of all his own 
articles which had been condemned by the bull. He takes 



ln£ BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 215 

his stand upon God's word in Scripture against the dog- 
mas of the earthly God ; — upon the revelation by God 
Himself, which, to everyone who studies it deeply and with 
devotion, will lighten his understanding, and make clear its 
substance and meaning. What though, as he is reminded, 
he is only a solitary, humble man, he is sure of this, that 
God's Word is with him. 

To Staupitz, who felt faint-hearted and desponding 
about the bull, Luther wrote, saying that, when burning 
it, he trembled at first and prayed ; but now he felt more 
rejoiced than at any other act in all his life. He now released 
himself finally from the restraints of those monastic rules, 
with which, as we have remarked before, he had always tor- 
mented himself, besides performing the higher duties of his 
calling. He was freed now, as he wrote to his friend Lange, 
by the authority of the bull, from the commands of his Order 
and of the Pope, being now an excommunicated man. Of this 
he was glad ; he retained merely the garb and lodging of a 
monk : he had more than enough of real duties to perform 
with his daily lectures and sermons, with his constant 
writings, educational, edifying, and polemical, and with his 
letters, discourses, and the assistance he was able to give 
his brethren. 

By this bold act, Luther consummated his final rupture 
with the Papal system, which for centuries had dominated 
the Christian world, and had identified itself with Chris- 
tianity. The news of it must also have made the fire which 
his words had kindled throughout Germany, blaze out in all 
its violence. He saw now, as he wrote to Staupitz, a storm 
raging, such as only the Last Day could allay ; so fiercely 
were passions aroused on both sides. 

Germany was^then, in fact, in a state of excitement and 
tension more critical than at any other period of her history. 
Side by side with Luther stood Hutten, in the forefront of 
the battle with Kome. The bull he published with sarcastic 
comments : the burning of Luther's works of devotion he 



216 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

denounced in Latin and German verses. Eberlin vcn 
Giinzburg, who shortly after began to wield his pen as a 
popular writer on reform, called these two men 'two chosen 
messengers of God.' A German Litany, which appeared 
early in 1521, implored God's grace and help for Martin 
Luther, the unshaken pillar of the Christian faith, and for 
the brave German knight Ulrich Hutten, his Pylades. 

Hutten also wrote now in German for the German 
people, both in prose and verse. During his stay with 
Sickingen in the winter at his Castle of Ebernburg, he read 
to him Luther's works, which roused in this powerful warrior 
an active sympathy with the doctrines of the Reformation, 
and stirred up projects in his mind, of what his own strong 
arm could accomplish for the good cause. 

Pamphlets, both anonymous and pseudonymous, were 
circulated in increasing numbers among the people. They 
took the form chiefly of dialogues, hi which laymen, in a 
simple Christian spirit, and with their natural under- 
standing, complain of the needs of Christendom, ask ques- 
tions and are enlightened. The outward eviis of the Papal 
system are pux clearly before the people:— the scandals 
among the priesthood and hi the convents, the iniquities of 
the Romish courtiers and creatures of the Pope, who pandered 
with menial subservience to the magnates at Rome, hi order 
to fatten on German benefices, and reap then harvest of taxes 
and extortions of every kind. The simple Word of God, with 
its sublime evangelical truths, must be freed from the sophis- 
tries woven round it by man, and be made accessible to all 
without distinction. Luther is represented as its foremost 
champion, and a true man of the people, whose testimony 
penetrated to the heart. His portrait, as painted by 
Cranach, was circulated together with his small tracts. In 
later editions the Holy Ghost appears in the form of a 
dove hovering above his head; his enemies spread the 
calmniTy, that Luther intended this emblem to represent 
himself. 



THE BULL OF EXCOMMUXICATIOX. 217 

Satirical pictures also were used as weapons on both 
sides in this contest. Cranach pourtrayed the meek and 
suffering Saviour on one side, and on the other the arrogant 
Roman Antichrist, in the twenty-six woodcuts of his ' Passion 
of Christ and Antichrist : ' Luther added short texts to these 
pictures. 

Luther's enemies now began, on their side, to write in 
German and for the people. The most talented among 
them, as regards vigorous, popular German and coarse 
satire, was the Franciscan Thomas Murner ; but his 
theology seemed to Luther so weak, that he only favoured 
him once with a brief allusion. He entered now into a 
longer literary duel with the Dresden theologian Eraser, 
who had challenged him after the disputation at Leipzig, 
and who now published a work 'Against the Unchristian 
Address of Martin Luther to the German Nobility. 5 Luther 
replied with a tract ' To the Goat at Leipzig,' Emser with 
another ' To the Bull at Wittenberg,' Luther with another 
1 On the Answer of the Goat at Leipzig,' and Emser with 
a third, ' On the furious Answer of the Bull at Wittenberg.' 
Luther, whose reply to Eraser's original work had been 
directed to the first sheets that appeared, met the work, 
when published in its complete form, with his ' Answer to 
the over-Christian, over-priestly, over-artful Book of the 
Goat Emser.' Emser followed up with a ' Q^adruplica,' to 
which Luther rejoined with another treatise entitled 'A 
Refutation by Doctor Luther of Eraser's error, extorted by the 
most learned priest of God, H. Emser.' When later, during 
Luther's residence at the Wartburg, Emser published a 
reply, Luther let him have the last word. Nothing new 
was contributed to the great struggle by this interchange of 
polemics, The most effective point made by Emser and 
the other defenders of the old Church system, was the old 
charge that Luther, one man, presumed to oppose the whole 
of Christendom as hitherto constituted, and by the over- 
throw of all foundations and authorities of the Church, 



218 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

to bring unbelief, distraction, and disturbance upon Church 
and State. Thus Einser says once in German doggrel, 
that Luther imagined that 

What Church and Fathers teach was nought ; 
None lived but Luther ; — so he thought. 

In threatening Luther with the consequences of his 
heresy, he never failed to hold up Huss as a bugbear. 

In Germany, as Ernser complains, there was already 
' such quarrelling, noise, and uproar, that not a district, 
town, village, or house was free from partisans, and one 
man was against another.' Aleander wrote to Eome saying 
that everywhere exasperation and excitement prevailed, and 
the Papal bull was laughed at. Among the adherents 
of the old Church system one heard rumours of strange 
and terrible import. A letter written shortly after the 
burning of the bull, gave out that Luther reckoned on 
thirty-five thousand Bohemians, and as many Saxons 
and other North Germans, who were ready, like the Goths 
and Vandals of old, to march on Italy and Eome. But 
it was evident, even at this stage, that from rancorous 
words to energetic and self-sacrificing action was a long 
step to take. Even in central Germany the bull was 
executed without any disturbance breaking out ; and that 
in the bishoprics of Meissen and Merseburg, which were 
adjacent to Wittenberg. Pirkheimer and Spengler at 
Nuremberg, whose names Eck had included in the bull, 
now bowed to the authority of the Pope, represented though 
it was by their personal enemy. 

Hutten, who saw his hopes in the Emperor's brother 
deceived, and believed his own liberty and even his life 
was menaced by the Papal bull, burned with impatient ar- 
dour to strike a blow. He was anxious also to see whether 
a resort to force, after his own meaning of the term, would 
meet with any support from the Elector Frederick. He 
ventured even, when speaking of Sickingen's lofty mission, 



THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 219 

to refer to the precedent of Ziska, the powerful champion of 
the Hussites, who had once been the terror and abomination 
of the Germans. He, a member of the proud Equestrian 
order, was willing now to join hands with the towns and 
the burghers to do battle with Kome for the liberty of 
Germany. But, passionate as were his words, it was by nc 
means clear what particular end under present circumstances 
he sought to achieve by means of arms. Sickingen, who 
had grasped the situation in a practical spirit, advised him 
to moderate his impatience, and sought, for his own part, 
to keep on good terms with the Emperor, in whom Hutten 
accordingly renewed his hopes. Each, in short, had over- 
rated the influence which Sickingen really possessed with 
the Emperor. * 

In this posture of affairs, Luther reverted, with increased 
conviction, to his original opinion, that the future must be left 
with God alone, without trusting to the help of man. Hutten 
himself had written to him, during the Diet of Worms, as 
follows : ' I will fight manfully with you for Christ ; but our 
counsels differ in this respect, that mine are human, while 
you, more perfect than I am, trust solely in those of God.' 
And when Hutten seemed really bent on taking the sword, 
Luther declared to him and to others, with all decision of 
purpose : ' I would not have man fight with force and blood- 
shed for the Gospel. By the Word has the world been sub- 
dued, by the Word has the Church been preserved, by the 
Word will she be restored. As Antichrist has begun without 
a blow, so without a blow will Antichrist be crushed by the 
Word.' Even against the Bomish hirelings among the Ger- 
man clergy, he would have no acts of violence committed, 
such as were committed in Bohemia. He had hot laboured 
with the German nobility to have such men restrained by the 
sword, but by advice and command. He was only afraid 
that their own rage would not allow of peaceful means to 
check them, but would bring misery and disaster upon 
their heads. 



220 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

His expectation — not indeed ungrounded — of the ap- 
proaching end of the world, to which, as we have seen, he 
alluded in a letter to Spalatin on January 16, 1521, Luther 
now announced more fully in a book, written in answer to 
an attack by the Eomish theologian Ambrosius Catharinus. 
He based his opinion on the prophecies of the Old and New 
Testament, on which Christian men and Christian commu- 
nities, sore pressed in the battle with the powers of darkness, 
had been wont ere then to rely, in the sure hope of the ap- 
proaching victory of God. Luther referred in particular to 
the vision of Daniel (chap, viii.), where he states that after 
the four great Kingdoms of the World, the last of which 
Luther takes to be the Eoman Empire, a bold and crafty 
ruler should rise up, and ' by his policy should cause craft 
to prosper in his hand, and should stand up against the 
Prince of princes, but should be broken without hand.' He 
saw this vision fulfilled in the Popedom ; which must, there- 
fore, be destroyed ' without hand,' or outward force. St. 
Paul, in his view, said the same in the passage in which 
(2 Thess. ii.) he foreshadowed long before the Eoman Anti- 
christ. That ' man of sin ' w T ho set himself up as God in the 
temple of God, ' the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His 
mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.' 
So, said Luther, the Pope and his kingdom would not be 
destroyed by the laity, but would be reserved for a heavier 
punishment until the coming of Christ. He must fall, as 
he had raised himself, not ' with the hand,' but with the spirit 
of Satan. The Spirit must kill the spirit ; the truth must 
reveal deceit. 

Luther, as we shall see, had all his life held firmly to 
this belief that the end was near. As his glowing zeal 
pictured the loftiest images and contrasts to his mind, so 
also this assurance of victory was already before his eyes. 
In his hope of the near completion of the earthly history 
of Christianity and mankind, he became the instrument of 
carving out a new grand chapter in its career. 



THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 221 

The announcement of the retractation required from 
Luther by the bull, was to have been sent to Eome within 
120 days. Luther had given his answer. The Pope 
declared that the time of grace had expired ; and on 
the 3rd of January Leo X. finally pronounced the ban 
against Luther and his followers, and an interdict on the 
places where they were harboured. 



THE BREACH WiTH ROME. 



CHAPTEE IX. 

THE DIET OF WOEMS. 

If we consider the powerful influences then at work to 
further the ecclesiastical movement in Germany, it seems 
reasonable to suppose that they would succeed in accom- 
plishing its ends through the power of the Word alone, 
r/ithout any such bloodshed and political convulsions as were 
i eared ; and that Germany, therefore, though vexed with 
9 piritual tempests — the ' tumult and uproar ' whose out- 
loirst Luther already discerned— must inevitably rid herself 
i jf the forms and fetters of Komish Churchdom, by the 
uheer force of her new religious convictions. And, in- 
deed, even in the short interval since Luther had com- 
menced, and only with slow steps had advanced further 
in the contest, a success had been attained which no one 
itt the beginning could have ventured to expect, or even 
I lope for. Frederick the Wise, the Nestor among the great 
German Princes of the Empire, had plainly freed himself 
inwardly from those fetters, and though, as yet, he did not 
feel himself called upon to express his sentiments by de- 
cisive action, his conduct, nevertheless, could not fail to 
make an impression on those about him. The nobility and 
burgher class, among whom the new doctrines had made 
most progress, were, politically speaking, powerfully repre- 
sented at the Diets. The most important of the spiritual 
lords, the Archbishop of Magdeburg and Mayence, who had 
most cause to resent Luther's onslaught on indulgences, 
had hitherto adopted a cautious and expectant attitude, 
which left him free to join at some future time a national 
revolt against his Eomish sovereign. The Diets, indeed, had 



THE DIET OF WORMS. 223 

hitherto submitted to their old ecclesiastical grievances with- 
out any fear of the wrath or scolding of the Pope. But, as 
soon as the conviction prevailed among the Estates, that the 
pretensions of the Eoman see had no eternal, Divine founda- 
tion, they could take in hand at once, on their own account, 
the reformation of the Church. As for the episcopacy, in 
particular, Luther had never desired, as his Address to the 
Nobility sufficiently showed, to interfere with or disturb it in 
any way, provided only the bishops would feed their flocks 
according to God's Word. An independent German epis- 
copate would then have been well able to undertake the 
reforms necessary in the system of worship. Luther him- 
self, as we shall see, wished and continued to wish that 
those reforms' should be as few and simple as possible. 

In the various German states which afterwards became 
Protestant, the work of reform was in fact accomplished, 
without any serious agitation, by the Princes themselves, in 
concert with their Estates ; and in the free towns by the 
magistrates and representatives of the burghers, notwith- 
standing the fact that its opponents were supported by the 
majority of the Empire and by the Emperor himself, who 
was a staunch adherent of the Eomish system. How much 
easier, in comparison, must the work of Evangelical refor- 
mation have been, had it been resolved on by the power of 
the Empire itself, in accord with the overwhelming voice of 
the whole nation. 

Reference was made, and in significant terms, to the 
savage and cruel war of the Hussites. But no one could 
deny to Luther's teaching, a clearness, a religious depth, 
and a freedom from fanaticism, peculiar to itself, and 
utterly wanting in the preaching of the followers of Huss. 
Again, the wild Hussite wars, which were still fresh in the 
sorrowful memory of the Germans, had in the first instance 
been provoked by the use of force, on the part of the 
Church, against the Bohemians. When Germany revolted, 
Rome found no such means of force at her command. 



224 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

It might fairly be questioned, if the thought were worth 
pursuing, whether Luther at that time had sufficient ground 
for looking for the triumph of his cause, not indeed to the 
power of the Word and the influences then active in his 
favour, but to the Day of the Lord, which he believed was 
near. 

It is true that in such great crises of history as this, 
the final issue never depends alone on the character and 
conduct of particular personages, however eminent they 
may be. In this antichristian system of the Papacy, 
Luther saw Satanic powers at work, which blinded the 
human heart, and might indeed succeed, by dint of suffer- 
ing and oppression, in overcoming for the moment the 
Word of God, but which could never finally extirpate or 
extinguish it. And we Protestants must confess that not 
only did a great mass of the German people remain bound 
by the spell of tradition, but that even to honest and 
independent-minded adherents of the old system, the 
interests of religion and morality might in reality have 
seemed to be seriously endangered by the new teaching 
and by the breach with the past. But never did the most 
momentous issue in the fortunes of the German nation 
and Church rest so entirely with one man as they did now 
with the German Emperor. Everything depended on this, 
whether he, as head of the Empire, should take the great 
work in hand, or should fling his authority and might into 
the opposite scale. 

Charles had been welcomed in Germany as one whose 
youthful heart seemed likely to respond to the newly- 
awakened life and aspirations ; as the son of an old 
German princely family, who by his election as Emperor 
had won a triumph over the foreign king Francis, supported 
though' the latter was by the Pope. Rumour now alleged that 
he was in the hands of the Mendicant Friars : the Francis- 
can Glapio was his confessor and influential adviser, the very 
man who had instigated the burning of Luther's works. 



THE DIET OF WORMS. 



225 



He was, however,, by no means so dependent on those 
about him as might have been supposed. His counsellors, 




Fig. 24.— Charles V. (From an engraving by B. Beham, in 1531.) 

in the general interests of his government, pursued an inde- 
pendent line of policy, and Charles himself, even in these 

Q 



226 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

his youthful days, knew to assert his independence as a 
monarch and display his cleverness as a statesman. 

But a German he 'was not, in spite of his grandfather 
Maximilian ; he had not even an ordinary knowledge of 
the German language. First and foremost, he was King of 
Spain and Naples ; in his Spanish kingdom he retained, 
even after his accession to the imperial dignity, the chief 
basis of his power. His religious training and education 
had familiarised him only with the strict orthodoxy of the 
Church and his duties in respect to her traditional ordi- 
nances. To these his conscience also constrained him 
to adhere. He never showed any inclination to investi- 
gate the opposite opinions of his German subjects, at least 
with any independent or critical exercise of judgment. A 
strict regard to his rights and duties as a sovereign was his 
sole guide, next to his religious principles, in dictating his 
conduct towards the Church. In Spain some reforms were 
being then introduced, based essentially on the doctrines and 
hierarchical constitution of the mediaeval Church. Stricter 
discipline, in particular, was observed with regard to the 
clergy and monks, who were admonished to attend more 
faithfully to their duties of promoting the moral and 
religious welfare of the people ; and the result was seen in 
a revival of popular interest in the forms and ordinances ol 
religion. Furthermore, the crown enjoyed certain rights 
independently of the Eoman Curia : an absolute monarchy 
was here ingeniously united with Papal absolutism. Such 
a union, however, sufficed in itself to make any severance 
of the German Church from the Papacy impossible under 
Charles V. The unity of his dominions was bound up with 
the unity of the Catholic Church, to which his subjects, 
alike in Spain and Germany, belonged. Added to this, he 
had to consider his foreign policy. Provoked as he had been 
by Leo X., who had leagued with France to prevent his 
election, still, with menaces of war from France, he saw the 
prudence of cultivating friendship, and contracting, if pos- 



THE DIET OF WORMS. 



227 



sible, an alliance with the Pope. The pressure desirable 
for this purpose could now be supplied by means of the 
very danger with which the Papacy was threatened by the 
great German heresy, and against which Eome so sorely 
needed the aid of a temporal power. At the same time, 
Charles was far too astute to allow his regard for the 
Pope, and his desire for the unity of the Church, to 
entangle his policy in measures for which his own power 
was inadequate, or by which his authority might be shaken, 
and possibly destroyed. Strengthened as was his monar- 
chical power in Spain, in Germany he found it hemmed 
in and fettered by the Estates of the Empire and the whole 
contexture of political relations. 

Such were the main points of view which determined 
for Charles V. his conduct towards Luther and his cause. 
Luther thus was at least a passive sharer in the game of 
high policy, ecclesiastical and temporal, now being played, 
and had to pursue his own course accordingly. 

The imperial court was quickly enough acquainted with 
the state of feeling in Germany. The Emperor showed 
himself prudent at this juncture, and accessible to opinions 
differing from his own, however small cause his proclamations 
gave to the friends of Luther to hope for any positive act of 
favour on his part. 

Whilst Charles was on his way up the Ehine, to hold, at 
the beginning of the New Year, a Diet at Worms, the Elector 
Frederick approached him with the request that Luther 
should at least be heard before the Emperor took any pro- 
ceedings against him. The Emperor informed him in reply 
that he might bring Luther for this purpose to Worms, pro- 
mising that the monk should not be molested. The Elector, 
however, felt doubts on this point : possibly he thought of 
the danger to which Huss had been exposed at Constance. 
But Luther, to whom he announced through Spalatin the 
Emperor's offer, replied immediately, 'If I am summoned, 
I will, so far as I am concerned, come ; even if I have to 

Q2 



228 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

be carried there ill ; for no man can doubt that, if the 
Emperor calls me, I am called by the Lord." Violence, 
he said, would no doubt be offered him ; but God still lived, 
who had delivered the three youths from the fiery furnace 
at Babylon, and if it was not His will that he should be 
saved, his head was of little value. There was one thing 
only to beseech of God, that the Emperor might not com- 
mence his reign by shedding innocent blood to shield 
ungodliness : he would far rather perish by the hands of the 
Eomanists alone. Some time before, Luther had thought 
of a place to fly to, in case it were impossible to stay at 
Wittenberg ; Bohemia was always open to him. But now 
he roundly declared, ' I will not fly, still less can I recant." 

Meanwhile the Emperor began to reflect whether Luther, 
who lay already under the ban and interdict, ought to be 
admitted to the place of the Diet. As to what proceedings 
should be taken against him, if he came, long, wavering, 
and anxious negotiations now took place between the 
Emperor, the Estates, and the legate Aleander, at Worms, 
where the Estates assembled in January, and the Diet was 
opened on the 28th. 

A Papal brief demanded the Emperor to enforce the 
bull, by which Luther was nov; definitely condemned, by 
an imperial edict. I;: vain, lie v'-'ofco 3 hat? God girded him 
with the sword of supreme csrfhl^ power, if he did not 
use it agahist heretics, who vcrc even worse than infidels. 
His advisers, however, were afreet? in the conviction that 
he could not move in this matter without the consent of 
his Estates. Aleander sought to gain them over in an 
elaborate harangue. He, according to whose principles the 
appeal to a Council was a crime, cleverly diverted from him- 
self the comparison and retort which his present arguments 
suggested, and insisted all the more on his complaint, that 
Luther always despised the authority of Councils and would 
take no correction from anyone. Glapio, then the Emperor's 
confessor and diplomatist, addressed himself, with espres- 



THE DIET OF WORMS, 229 

sions of wonderful friendship, to Frederick's chancellor, 
Briick. Even he found much that was good in Luther's 
writings, but the contents of * his book, the ' Babylonian 
Captivity,' were detestable. All that need be done was that 
Luther should disclaim or retract that offensive work, so 
that what was good in his writings might bear fruit for the 
Church, and Luther, together with the Emperor, might 
co-operate in the work of true reform. He might be invited 
to meet some learned, impartial men at a suitable place, 
and submit himself to their judgment. This, at all events, 
would be a happy means of preventing his having to appear 
before the Emperor and the Estates of the Empire, and if 
he persisted in refusing to recant, of deciding then and 
there his fate. We must leave it an open question, how far 
Glapio still seriously thought it possible, by dint of threats 
and entreaties, to utilise Luther for effecting a reform in 
the Spanish sense, and as an instrument against any Pope 
who should prove hostile to the Emperor. But the Elector 
Frederick would undertake no responsibility in this dark 
design : he refused flatly to grant to Glapio the private 
audience he desired. 

The Emperor acceded so far to the urgency of the Pope 
as to cause a draft mandate to be laid before the Estates, 
proposing that Luther should be arrested, and his protectors 
punished for high treason. The Frankfort deputy wrote 
home : ' The monk makes plenty of work. Some would 
gladly crucify him, and I fear he will hardly escape them ; 
only they must take care that he does not rise again on the 
third day.' After seven days' excited debate in the Diet, 
in which the Elector took a prominent and lively part, an 
answer to the imperial mandate was at length agreed upon, 
offering for consideration ' whether, inasmuch as Luther's 
preaching, doctrines, and writings had awakened among 
the common people all kinds of thoughts, fancies, and 
desires, any good result or advantage would accrue from 
issuing the mandate alone in all its stringency, without 



230 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

first having cited Luther before them and heard hirn.' 
At the same time, his examination was to be so far 
restricted, that no discussion with him should be allowed, 
but simply the question put to him, ' whether or not he 
intended to insist upon the writings he had published 
against our holy Christian faith.' If he retracted them, he 
should be heard further on other points and matters, and 
dealt with in all equity upon them. If, on the contrary, 
he persisted in all or any of the articles at variance with 
the faith, then all the Estates of the Empire should, with- 
out further disputation, adhere to and help to maintain the 
faith handed down by their fathers, and the imperial edict 
should then go abroad throughout the land. 

The Emperor, accordingly, on March 6, issued a citation 
to Luther, summoning him to Worms, to give ' information 
concerning his doctrines and books.' An imperial herald 
was sent to conduct him. In the event of his disobeying 
the citation, or refusing to retract, the Estates declared 
their consent to treat him as an open heretic. 

Luther, therefore, had to renounce at once all hope of 
having the truth touching his articles of faith tested fairly 
at Worms by the standard of God's word in Scripture. 
Spalatin indicated to him the points on which, according to 
Glapio's statement, he would in any case be expected to 
make a public recantation. 

It remained still doubtful, however, how far those articles 
would be extended, and how far the ' other points ' might be 
stretched, or possibly be made the subject of further and 
profitable discussion, if he submitted in respect to the former. 
Glapio had made no reference to the question of the patristic 
belief in the infallibility of the Pope, or his absolute power 
over the Church collectively and her Councils : even the 
Papal nuncio himself had not ventured to touch on these 
subjects. There was room enough for the more liberal and 
independent principles entertained on these points by the 
members of the earlier reforming Councils, if only Luther 



THE DIET OF WORMS. 231 

had not disputed their authority with that of Councils alto- 
gether. The ecclesiastical abuses, against which the Diet 
had already remonstrated to the Pope, were just now at 
Worms the subject of general and bitter complaint. The 
imposts levied by Eome on ecclesiastical benefices and fiefs, 
mere outward symbols of supremacy it is true, but highly 
important to the Pope, swallowed up enormous sums ; while 
the Empire hardly knew how to scrape together a miserable 
subsidy for the newly organised government and the expenses 
of justice, and men talked openly of retaining these Papal 
tributes, notwithstanding all protests from Eome, for these 
purposes. Even faithful adherents of the old Church system, 
like Duke George of Saxony, demanded a comprehensive 
reformation of the clergy, whose scandals were so destructive 
of religion, and, as the best means to effect this reformation, 
a General Council of the Church. Aleander had to report 
to Eome, that all parties were unanimous in this desire, so 
hateful to the Pope himself, and that the Germans wished 
to have the Council in their own country. 

Luther formed his resolve at once on the two points 
required of him. He determined to obey the summons to 
the Diet, and, if there unconvicted of error, to refuse the 
recantation demanded. 

The Emperor's citation was delivered to him on 
March 26 by the imperial herald, Kaspar Sturm, who 
was to accompany him to Worms. Within twenty-one days 
after its receipt, Luther was to appear before the Emperor ; 
he was due therefore at Worms on April 16, at the latest. 

Up till now he had continued uninterruptedly his arduous 
and multifarious labours, and, to use his own expression, 
like Nehemiah he carried on at once the work of peace and 
of war ; he built with one hand, and wielded the sword with 
the other. His controversy with Catharinus he brought 
quickly to a conclusion. During March he finished the 
first part of his Exposition of the Gospel as read in church, 
which he had undertaken, as a peaceful and edifying work, at 



232 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

the request of the Elector, to whom he wrote a dedication ; 
and he was now at work on a fervent and tender prac- 
tical explanation of the Magnificat, which he had intended 
for his devoted friend, Prince John Frederick, the son 
of Duke John and nephew of the Elector Frederick. He 
addressed a short letter to him on March 31, enclos- 
ing the first printed sheets of this treatise ; and the next 
day sent him the epilogue, addressed to his friend Link, to 
his reply to Catharinus, dedicated also to Link. ' I know/ 
he says here, ' and am certain, that our Lord Jesus Christ 
still lives and rules. Upon this knowledge and assurance 
I rely, and therefore I will not fear ten thousand Popes ; 
for He Who is with us is greater than he who is in 
the world.' 

On the following day, April 2, the Tuesday after 
Easter, he set out on his way to Worms. His friend 
Amsdorf and the Pomeranian nobleman Peter Swaven, who 
was then studying at Wittenberg, accompanied him. He 
took with him also, according to the rules of the Order, a 
brother of the Order, John Pezensteiner. The Wittenberg- 
magistracy provided carriages and horses. 

The way led past Leipzig, through Thuringia from 
Naumburg to Eisenach, then southward past Berka, Hers- 
feld, Griinberg, Friedberg, Frankfort, and Oppenheim. The 
herald rode on before in his coat of arms, and announced 
the man whose word had everywhere so mightily stirred the 
minds of people, and for whose future behaviour and fate 
friend and foe were alike anxious. Everywhere people 
collected to catch a glimpse of him. 

On April 6 he was very solemnly received at Erfurt. 
The large majority of the university there were by this time 
full of enthusiasm for his cause. His friend Crotus, on 
his return from Italy, had been chosen Rector. The ban of 
excommunication had not been published by the university, 
and had been thrown into the water by the students. 
Justus Jonas was foremost in zeal ; and even Erasmus, his 



THE DIET OF WORMS. 233 

honoured friend, had no longer been able to restrain him. 
Lange and others were active in preaching among the 
people. 

Jonas hastened to Weimar to meet Luther on his ap- 
proach. Forty members of the university, with the Kector at 
their head, went on horseback, accompanied by a number of 
others on foot, to welcome him at the boundary of the town. 
Luther had also a small retinue with him. Crotus expressed 
to him the infinite pleasure it was to see him, the great 
champion of the faith ; whereupon Luther answered, that 
he did not deserve such praise, but he thanked them for 
their love. The poet Eoban also stammered out, as he said 
of himself, a few words ; he afterwards described the pro- 
gress in a set of Latin songs. 

The following day, a Sunday, Luther spent at Erfurt. 
He preached there, in the church of the Augustine convent, a 
sermon which has been preserved. Beginning with the words 
of the Gospel of the day, ' Peace be unto you,' he spoke of 
the peace which we find through Christ the Eedeemer, by 
faith in whom and in his work of salvation we are justified, 
without any works or merit of our own ; of the freedom 
with which Christians may act in faith and love ; and of 
the duty of every man, who possessed this peace of God, so 
to order his work and conduct, that it shall be useful not 
only to himself but to his neighbour. This he said in protest 
against the justification by works taught by most preachers, 
against the system of Papal commands, and against the 
wisdom of heathen teachers, of an Aristotle or a Plato. Of 
his present personal position and the difficult path he had 
now to tread, he took no -thought, but only of the general 
obligation he was under, whatever other men might teach; 
' I will speak the truth and must speak it ; for that reason I 
am here, and take no money for it.' During the sermon a 
crash was suddenly heard in the overweighted balconies of 
the crowded church, the doors of which were blocked with 
multitudes eager to hear him. The crowd were about to 



234 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

rush out in a panic, when Luther exclaimed, '. I know thy 
wiles, thou Satan,' and quieted the congregation with the 
assurance that no danger threatened, it was only the devil 
who was carrying on his wicked sport. 

Luther also preached in the Augustine convents at Gotha 
and Eisenach. At Gotha the people thought it significant 
that after the sermon the devil tore off some stones from the 
gable of the church. 

In the inns Luther liked to refresh himself with music, 
and often took up the lute. 

At Eisenach, however, he was seized with an attack 
of illness, and had to be bled. From Frankfort he writes 
to Spalatin, who was then at Worms, that he felt since 
then a degree of suffering and weakness unknown to him 
before. 

On the way he found a new imperial edict posted up, 
which ordered all his books to be seized, as having been 
condemned by the Pope and being contrary to the Christian 
faith. Charles V. by this edict had given satisfaction again 
to the legates, who were annoyed at Luther being summoned 
to Worms. Many doubted whether Luther, after this con- 
demnation of his cause by the Emperor, would venture to 
present himself in person at Worms. He himself was 
alarmed, but travelled on. 

Meanwhile at Worms disquietude and suspense prevailed 
on both sides. Hutten from the Castle of Ebernburg sent 
threatening and angry letters to the Papal legates, who 
became really anxious lest a blow might be struck from 
that quarter. Aleander complained that Sickingen now was 
king in Germany, since he could command a following 
whenever and as large as he pleased. But in truth he was 
in no case ready for an attack at that moment. He still 
reckoned on being able, with his Church sympathies, to 
remain the Emperor's friend, and was just now on the 
point of taking a post of military command in his service. 
Some anxious friends of Luther's were afraid that, accord- 



THE DIET OF WORMS, 235 

ing to Papal law, the safe-conduct would not be observed in 
the case of a condemned heretic. Spalatin himself sent 
from Worms a second warning to Luther after he had left 
Frankfort, intimating that he would suffer the fate of Huss. 

Meanwhile Glapio, on the other side, no doubt with the 
knowledge and consent of his imperial master, made one 
more attempt in a very unexpected manner to influence 
Luther, or at least to prevent him from going to Worms. 
He went with the imperial chamberlain, Paul von Armsdorf, 
to Sickingen and Hutten at the Castle of Ebernburg, spoke 
of Luther as he had formerly done to Briick, in an uncon- 
strained and friendly manner, and offered to hold a peace- 
able interview with Luther in Sickingen' s presence. 
Armsdorf at the same time earnestly dissuaded Hutten 
from his attacks and threats against the legates, and made 
him the offer of an imperial pension if he would desist. 
Had Luther agreed to this proposal and gone to the 
Ebernburg, he could not have reached Worms in time ; the 
safe-conduct promised him would have been no longer 
valid, and the Emperor would have been free to act against 
him. Nevertheless Sickingen entered into the proposal. 
The danger threatening Luther at Worms must have 
appeared still greater to him, and Luther could then have 
enjoyed the protection of his castle, which he had offered 
him before. Martin Butzer, the theologian from Schlettstadt, 
happened then to be with Sickingen ; he had already met 
Luther at Heidelberg in 1518, had then learned to know 
him, and had embraced his opinions. He was now com- 
missioned to convey this invitation to him at Oppenheim, 
which lay on Luther's road. 

But Luther continued on his way. He told Butzer that 
Glapio would be able to speak with him at Worms. To 
Spalatin he replied, though Huss were burnt, yet the truth 
was not burnt ; he would go to Worms, though there were 
as many devils there as there were tiles on the roofs of the 
houses. 



236 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

On April 16, at ten o'clock in the morning, Luther 
entered Worms. He sat in an open carriage with his three 
companions from Wittenberg, clothed in his monk's habit. 
He was accompanied by a large number of men on horse- 
back, some of whom, like Jonas, had joined him earlier in 
his journey, others, like some gentlemen belonging to the 
Elector's court, had ridden out from Worms to receive him. 
The imperial herald rode on before. The watchman blew a 
horn from the tower of the cathedral on seeing the proces- 
sion approach the gate. Thousands streamed hither to see 
Luther. The gentlemen of the court escorted him into 
the house of the Knights of St. John, where he lodged with 
two counsellors of the Elector. As he stepped from his 
carriage he said, ' God will be with me.' Aleander, writing 
to Koine, said that he looked around with the eyes of a 
demon. 

Crowds of disiinguished men, ecclesiastics and laymen, 
who were anxious to know him personally, nocked daily to 
see him. 

On the evening of the following day he had to appear 
before the Diet, which was assembled in the Bishop's palace, 
the. residence of the Emperor, not far from where Luther 
was lodging. He was conducted thither by side streets, it 
being impossible to get through the crowds assembled in the 
main thoroughfare to see him. On his way into the hall 
where the Diet was assembled, tradition tells us how the 
famous warrior, George von Frundsberg, clapped him on the 
shoulder, and said : ' My poor monk ! my poor monk ! thou 
art on thy way to make such a stand as I and many of 
my knights have never done in our toughest battles. If 
thou art sure of the justice of thy cause, then forward in 
the name of God, and be of good courage— God will not 
forsake thee.' The Elector had given Luther as his advo- 
cate the lawyer Jerome Schurf, his Wittenberg colleague and 
friend. 

When at length, after waiting two hours, Luther was 



THE DIET OF WORMS. 



237 



admitted to the Diet,. Eck, 1 the official of the Archbishop of 
Treves, put to him simply, in the name of the Emperor, 
two questions, whether he acknowledged the books (pointing 




Fig. 25.— Luther. (From an engraving by Cranach, in 1521.) 

to them on a bench beside him) to be his own, and next, 
whether he would retract their contents or persist in them. 

1 This Eck must not be confused with the other John Eck, the theo- 
logian. 



238 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

Schurf here exclaimed, ' Let the titles of the books be 
named.' Eck then read them out. Among them there were 
some merely edifying writings, such as ' A Commentary 
on the Lord's Prayer,' which had never been made the 
subject of complaint. 

Luther was not prepared for this proceeding, and 
possibly the first sight of the august assembly made him 
nervous. He answered in a low voice, and as if frightened, 
that the books were his, but that since the question as to 
their contents concerned the highest of all things, the Word 
of God and the salvation of souls, he must beware of giving 
a rash answer, and must therefore humbly entreat further 
time for consideration. 

After a short deliberation the Emperor instructed Eck 
to reply that he would, out of his clemency, grant him a 
respite till the next day. 

So Luther had again, on April 18, a Thursday, to appear 
before the Diet. Again he had to wait two hours, till six 
o'clock. He stood there in the hall among the dense crowd, 
talking unconstrained and cheerfully with the ambassador 
of the Diet, Peutinger, his patron at Augsburg. 

After he was called in, Eck began by reproaching him 
for having wanted time for consideration. He then put 
the second question to him in a form more befitting and 
more conformable with the wishes of the members of the 
Diet : ' Wilt thou defend all the books acknowledged by 
thee to be thine, or recant some part ? ' Luther now 
answered with firmness and modesty, in a well-considered 
speech. He divided his works into three classes. In 
some of them he had set forth simple evangelical truths, 
professed alike by friend and foe. Those he could on no 
account retract. In others he had attacked corrupt laws 
and doctrines of the Papacy, which no one could deny had 
miserably vexed and martyred the consciences of Christians, 
and had tyrannically devoured the property of the German 
nation ; if he were to retract these books, he would make 



THE DIET OF WORMS. 239 

himself a cloak for wickedness and tyranny. In the third 
class of his books he had written against individuals, who 
endeavoured to shield that tyranny, and to subvert godly 
doctrine. Against these he freely confessed that he had 
been more violent than was befitting. Yet even these 
writings it was impossible for him to retract, without lend- 
ing a hand to tyranny and godlessness. But in defence of 
his books he could only say in the words of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, ' If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil ; but 
if well, why smitest thou me ? ' If anyone could do so, let 
him produce his evidence and confute him from the sacred 
writings, the Old Testament and the Gospel, and he would 
be the first to throw his books into the fire. And now, as 
in the course of his speech he had sounded a new challenge 
to the Papacy, so he concluded by an earnest warning to 
Emperor and Empire, lest by endeavouring to promote 
peace by a condemnation of the Divine Word, they might 
rather bring a dreadful deluge of evils, and thus give an 
unhappy and inauspicious beginning to the reign of the 
noble young Emperor. He said not these things as if the 
great personages who heard him stood in any need of his 
admonitions, but because it was a duty that he owed to his 
native Germany, and he could not neglect to discharge it. 

Luther, like Eck, spoke in Latin, and then, by desire, 
repeated his speech with equal firmness in German. 
Schurf, who was standing by his side, declared afterwards 
with pride, ' how Martin had made this answer with such 
bravery and modest candour, with eyes upraised to Heaven, 
that he and everyone was astonished.' 

The princes held a short consultation after this harangue. 
Then Eck, commissioned by the Emperor, sharply reproved 
him for having spoken impertinently and not really answered 
the question put to him. He rejected his demand that 
evidence from Scripture might be brought against him, by 
declaring that his heresies had already been condemned by 
the Church, and in particular by the Council of Constance, 



240 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

and such judgments must suffice if anything were to be 
held settled in Christianity. He promised him, however, 
if he would retract the offensive articles, that his other, 
writings should be fairly dealt with, and finally demanded 
a plain answer ' without horns ' to the question, whether he- 
intended to adhere to all he had written, or would retract 
any part of it.. 

To this Luther replied he would give an answer ' with 
neither horns nor teeth.' Unless he were refuted by proofs 
from Scripture, or by evident reason, his conscience bound 
him to adhere to the Word of God which he had quoted in 
his defence. Popes and Councils, as was clear, had often 
erred and contradicted themselves. He could not, there- 
fore, and he would not, retract anything, for it was neither 
safe nor honest to act against one's conscience. 

Eck exchanged only a few more words with him in 
reply to his assertion that Councils had erred. 'You cannot 
prove that,' said Eck. 'I will pledge myself to do it,' was 
Luther's answer. Pressed and threatened by his enemy, 
he concluded with the famous words : ' Here I stand, I 
can do no otherwise. God help me. Amen.' 

The Emperor reluctantly broke up the Diet, at about 
eight o'clock in the evening. Darkness had meanwhile 
come on ; the hall was lighted with torches, and the audience 
were in a state of general excitement and agitation. Luther 
was led out ; whereupon an uproar arose among the 
Germans, who thought that he had been taken prisoner. 
As he stood among the heated crowd, Duke Erich of 
Brunswick sent him a silver tankard of Eimbeck beer, after 
having first drank of it himself. 

On reaching his lodging, 'Luther,' to use the words of 
a Nurernberger present there, ' stretched out his hands, and 
with a joyful countenance exclaimed, " I am through! I am 
through ! " ' Spalatin says : ' He entered the lodging so 
courageous, comforted and joyful in the Lord, that he said 
before others and myself, " if he had a thousand heads, he 



THE DIET OF WORMS. 241 

would rather have them all cut off than make one recanta- 
tion.' He relates also how the Elector Frederick, before 
his supper, sent for him from Luther's dwelling, took 
him into his room and expressed to him his astonishment 
and delight at Luther's speech. 'How excellently did 
Father Martin speak both in Latin and German before 
the Emperor and the Orders. He was bold enough, if not 
too much so.' The Emperor, on the contrary, had been so 
little impressed by Luther's personality, and had under- 
stood so little of it, that he fancied the writings ascribed to 
him must have been written by some one else. Many of 
his Spaniards had pursued Luther, as he left the Diet, with 
hisses and shouts of scorn. 

Luther, by refusing thus point-blank to retract, effectually 
destroyed whatever hopes of mediation or reconciliation had 
been entertained by the milder and more moderate adherents 
of the Church who still wished for reform. Nor was any 
union possible with those who, while looking to a truly repre- 
sentative Council as the best safeguard against the tyranny 
of a Pope, were anxious also to obtain at such a Council a 
secure and final settlement of all questions of Christian 
faith and morals. It was these very Councils about which 
Eck purposely called on Luther for a declaration ; and 
Luther's words on this point might well have been con- 
sidered by the Elector as ' too bold.' Aleander, who had 
used such efforts to prevent Luther's being heard, was now 
well satisfied with the result. But Luther remained faithful 
to himself. True it was that he had often formerly spoken 
of yielding in mere externals, and of the duty of living in 
love and harmony, and respecting the weaknesses of others ; 
and his conduct during the elaboration of his own Church 
system will show us how well he knew to accommodate 
himself to the time, and, where perfection was impossible, 
to be content with what was imperfect. But the question 
here was not about externals, or whether a given proceeding 
were judicious or not for the attainment of an object 

R 



242 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

admittedly good. It was a question of confessing or 
denying the truth — the highest and holiest truths, as he 
expressed it, relating to God and the salvation of man. In 
this matter his conscience was bound. 

And the trial thus offered for his endurance was not 
yet over. On the morning of the 19th, the Emperor sent 
word to the Estates, that he would now send Luther back 
in safety to Wittenberg, but treat him as a heretic. The 
majority insisted on attempting further negotiations with 
him through a Committee specially appointed. These were 
conducted accordingly by the Elector of Treves, to whom 
Frederick the Wise and Miltitz had once been anxious to 
submit Luther's affair. The friendliness, and the visible 
interest in his cause, with which Luther now was urged, 
was more calculated to move him than Eck's behaviour 
at the Diet. He himself bore witness afterwards how the 
Archbishop had shown himself more than gracious to him, 
and would willingly have arranged matters peaceably. In- 
stead of being urged simply to retract all his propositions 
condemned by the Pope, or his writings directed against 
the Papacy, he was referred in particular to those articles in 
which he rejected the decisions of the Council of Constance. 
He was desired to submit in confidence to a verdict of the 
Emperor and the Empire, when his books should be sub- 
mitted to judges beyond suspicion. After that he should at 
least accept the decision of a future Council, unfettered by 
any acknowledgment of the previous sentence of the Pope. 
So freely and independently of the Pope did this Committee 
of the German Diet, including several bishops and Duke 
George of Saxony, proceed in negotiating with a Papal 
heretic. But everything was shij)wrecked on Luther's firm 
leservation that the decision must not be contrary to the 
Word of God ; and on that question his conscience would 
not allow him to renounce the right of judging for himself. 
After two days' negotiations, he thus, on April 25, accord- 
ing to Spalatin, declared himself to the Archbishop : ' Most 



THE DIET OF WORMS. 243 

gracious Lord, I cannot yield ; it must happen with me as 
God wills ; ' and continued : ' I beg of your Grace that you 
will obtain for me the gracious permission of His Imperial 
Majesty that I may go home again, for I have now been 
here for ten days and nothing yet has been effected.' 
Three hours later the Emperor sent word to Luther 
that he might return to the place he came from, and 
should be given a safe-conduct for twenty-one days, but 
would not be allowed to preach on the way. 

Free residence, however, and protection at Wittenberg, in 
case Luther were condemned by the Empire, was more than 
even Frederick the Wise would be able to assure him. But 
he had already laid his plan for the emergency. Spalatin 
refers to it in these words : ' Now was my most gracious 
Lord somewhat disheartened ; he was certainly fond of Dr. 
Martin, and was also most unwilling to act against the 
Word of God, or to bring upon himself the displeasure of 
the Emperor. Accordingly, he devised means how to get 
Dr. Martin out of the way for a time, until matters might 
be quietly settled, and caused Luther also to be informed, 
the evening before he left Worms, of his scheme for getting 
him out of the way. At this Dr. Martin, out of deference 
to his Elector, was submissively content, though, certainly, 
then and at all times he would much rather have gone 
courageously to the attack.' 

The very next morning, Friday the 26th, Luther de- 
parted. The imperial herald went behind him, so as not 
to attract notice. They took the usual road to Eisenach. 
At Friedberg Luther dismissed the herald, giving him 
a letter to the Emperor and the Estates, in which he 
defended his conduct at Worms, and his refusal to trust in 
the decision of men, by saying that when God's Word and 
things eternal were at stake, one's trust and dependence 
should be placed, not on one man or many men, but on 
God alone. At Hersfeld, where Abbot Crato, in spite of the 
ban, received him with all marks of honour, and again at 

r2 



244 THE BREACH WITH ROME. 

Eisenach, he preached, notwithstanding the Emperor's 
prohibition, not daring to let the Word of God be bound. 
From Eisenach, whilst Swaven, Schurf, and several other 
of his companions went straight on, he struck southward, 
together with Amsdorf and Brother Pezensteiner, in order 
to go and see his relations at Mohra. Here, after spending 
the night at the house of his uncle Heinz, he preached the 
next morning, Saturday, May 4. Then, accompanied by 
some of his relations, he took the road through Schweina, 
past the Castle of Altenstein, and then across the back 
of the Thuringian Forest to Waltershausen and Gotha. 
Towards evening, when near Altenstein, he bade leave of his 
relations. About half an hour farther on, at a spot where 
the road enters the wooded heights, and ascending between 
hills along a brook, leads to an old chapel, which even then 
was in ruins, and has now quite disappeared, armed horse- 
men attacked the carriage, ordered it to stop with threats 
and curses, pulled Luther out of it, and then hurried him 
away at full speed. Pezensteiner had run away as soon as 
he saw them approach. Amsdorf and the coachman were 
allowed to pass on ; the former was in the secret, and 
pretended to be terrified, to avoid any suspicion on the 
part of his companion. The Wartburg lay to the north, 
about eight miles distant, and had been the starting-point 
of the horsemen, as it now was their goal ; but precaution 
made them ride first in an eastern direction with Luther. 
The coachman afterwards related how Luther in the haste 
of the flight dropped a grey hat he had worn. And now 
Luther was given a horse to ride. The night was dark, 
and about eleven o'clock they arrived at the stately castle, 
situated above Eisenach. Here he was to be kept as a 
knight-prisoner. The secret was kept as strictly as possible 
towards friend and foe. For many weeks afterwards even 
Frederick's brother John had no idea of it, on the contrary, 
he wrote to Frederick that Luther, he had heard, was 
residing at one of Sickingen's castles. Among his friends 



THE DIET OF WORMS. 245 

and followers the terrible news had spread, immediately 
upon his capture, that he had been made away with by his 
enemies. 

At Worms, however, while the Pope was concluding 
an alliance with Charles against France, the Papal 
legate Aleander, by commission of the Emperor, pre- 
pared the edict against Luther on the 8th of May. 
It was not, however, until the 25th, after Frederick, the 
Elector of the Palatinate, and a great part of the other 
members of the Diet had already left, that it was deemed 
advisable to have it communicated to the rest of the 
Estates ; nevertheless it was antedated the 8th, and issued 
' by the unanimous advice of the Electors and Estates/ 
It pronounced upon Luther, applying the customary strong 
expressions of Papal bulls, the ban and re-ban ; no one 
was to receive him any longer, or feed him &c, but 
wherever he was found, he was to be seized and handed 
over to the Emperor. 



PAET IV. 

FROM THE DIET OF WORMS TO THE PEASANTS' 
WAR AND LUTHER S MARRIAGE. 



CHAPTEE I. 



, LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG, TO HIS VISIT TO WITTENBERG 

IN 1521. 

Luther, after being brought to the fortress, had to live 
there as a knight-prisoner. He was called Squire George, 
he grew a stately beard, and doffed his monk's cowl for the 
dress of a knight, with a sword at his side. The governor 
of the castle, Herr von Berlepsch, entertained him with all 
honour, and he was liberally supplied with food and drink. 
He was free to go about as he pleased in the apartments of 
the castle, and was permitted, in the company of a trusty 
servant, to take rides and walks out of doors. Thus, as he 
writes to a friend, he sat up aloft, in the region of the 
birds, as a curious prisoner, nolens volens, whether he willed 
or no ; willing, because God would have it so, not willing, 
because he would far rather have stood up for the Word of 
God in public, but of such an honour God had not yet 
found him worthy. 

Care was also taken at once that he should be able to 
correspond at least by letter with his friends, and especially 
with those at Wittenberg. These letters were sent by 
messengers of the Elector through the hands of Spalatin. 
When Luther afterwards heard that a rumour had got abroad 
as to his place of residence, he sent a letter to Spalatin, in 



LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 



247 



which he said : ' A report, so I hear, is spread that Luther 
is staying at the Wartburg near Eisenach ; the people sup- 




S'ig. 26. Luther as " Squire George." (From a woodcut by Cranach.) 

pose this to be the case, because I was taken prisoner in the 
fc^od below ; but while they believe that. I sit here safely 



248 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

hidden. If the books that I publish betray me, then 1 
shall change my abode ; it is very strange that nobody 
thinks of Bohemia.' This letter, so Luther thought, Spa- 
latin might let fall into the hands of some of his spying 
opponents, so as to lead them astray in their conjecture. 
Spalatin made no use of this naive attempt at trickery. 
He could hardly have done much in the matter, and 
would probably have directed those who saw through the 
meaning of the letter straight to the Wartburg. He suc- 
ceeded, however, remarkably well in keeping the spot a 
secret, even after it was generally guessed and known 
that Luther was to be found somewhere in Saxony. As 
late as 1528, Luther's friend Agricola remarks that he 
had hitherto remained concealed, whilst some even sought 
to hear of him by questioning of the devil ; and more than 
twenty years later Luther's opponent Cochlaeus declares 
that he was hidden at Alstedt in Thuringia. 

There was no imperial power at that time which might 
have deemed it necessary or expedient to track out the man 
who had been condemned by the Edict of Worms. The 
Emperor had left Germany again, and was engaged in a 
war with France. 

In his quiet solitude Luther threw himself again with- 
out delay into the work of his calling, so far as he could 
here perform it. This was the study of Scripture and the 
active exercise of his own pen in the service of God's "Word. 
He had now more time than before to investigate the mean- 
ing of the Bible in its original languages. 'I sit here,' he 
writes to Spalatin ten days after his arrival, ' the whole 
day at leisure, and read the Greek and Hebrew Bible.' 

His sojourn at the castle began in the festival time 
between Easter and W^hitsuntide. He wrote at once an 
exposition of the sixty-eighth Psalm, with particular re- 
ference to the events of Ascension and Whitsuntide. 

For the liberation of the laity from the Papal yoke, 
he set at once further to work by composing a treatise ' On 



LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG, 249 

Confession, whether the Pope has power to order it.' He 
commends confession, when a man humbles himself and 
receives forgiveness of God through the lips of a Christian 
brother, but he denounces any compulsion in the matter, 
and warns men against priests who pervert it into a means 
of increasing their own power. He now expressed his 
public thanks to Sickingen, and dedicated the book to him — 
4 To the just and firm Francis von Sickingen, my especial 
lord and patron.' In this dedication he repeats the fears 
he had long expressed of the judgment that the clergy 
would bring upon themselves by their hatred of improvement 
and their obstinacy. ' I have,' he says, ' often offered peace, 
I have offered them an answer, I have disputed, but all has 
been of no avail : I have met with no justice, but only with 
vain malice and violence, nothing more. I have been 
simply called on to retract, and threatened with every evil 
if I refused.' Then speaking of the critical moment at 
which he was obliged to withdraw, ' I can do no more,' he 
says, ' I am now out of the game. They have now time to 
change that which cannot, and should not, and will not be 
tolerated from them any longer. If they refuse to make 
the change, another will make it for them, without their 
thanks, one who will not teach like Luther with letters and 
words, but with deeds. Thank God, the fear and awe of 
those rogues at Eome is now less than it was.' And again, 
speaking of Eoman insolence : ' They push on blindly ahead 
— there is no listening or reasoning. Well, I have seen 
more water-bubbles than even theirs, and once such an 
outrageous smoke that it managed to blot out the sun, but 
the smoke never lasted, and the sun still shines. I shall 
continue to keep the truth bright and expose it, and am as 
far from fearing my ungracious masters as they are ready 
to despise me.' 

Luther now finished his exposition of the Magnificat, 
which, with loving devotion to the subject, he had intended 
for Prince John Frederick. He resumed also his work ou 



2$o EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

the Sunday Gospels and Epistles. The first part of it he 
had already published in Latin. But he gave it now a new, 
and for the Christian people of Germany, a most important 
character, by writing in German his comments on these 
passages of Scripture, including those already dealt with in 
Latin, which formed the text of the sermon for the day. 
Thus arose his first collection of sermons, the ' Church- 
Postills.' By November he had already sent the first part 
to the press, though the work progressed but slowly. In 
a simple exposition of the words of the Bible, without any 
artificial and rhetorical additions or ornament, but with a 
constant and cheerful regard to practical life, with an un- 
ceasing attention to the primary questions of salvation, and 
in pithy, clear, and thoroughly popular language, he began 
to lay before his readers the sum total of Christian truth, 
and impress it on their hearts. The work served as much 
for the instruction and support of other preachers of the 
gospel now newly proclaimed, as for the direct teaching and 
edifying of the members of their flocks. It advanced, how- 
ever, only by degrees, and Luther after many years was 
obliged to have it finished by friends, who collected together 
printed or written copies of his various sermons. 

For the special comfort and advice of his Wittenberg 
congregation Luther wrote an exposition of the thirty- seventh 
Psalm. Nor with less energy and force did he wield his 
pen during June, in a vigorous and learned polemical reply 
in Latin to the Louvain theologian, Latomus. 

And yet Luther all this while continued to lament that 
he had to sit there so idly in his Patmos : he would rather be 
burnt in the service of God's Word than stagnate there alone. 
The bodily rest which took the place of his former unwearied 
activity in the pulpit and the lecturer's chair, together with 
the sumptuous fare now substituted for the simple diet of 
the convent, were no doubt the cause of the physical suffer- 
ing which for a long time had grievously distressed him and 
put his patience to the test, and which must have weighed 



LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 251 

upon his spirits. In his distress he once thought of going 
to Erfurt to consult physicians. Some strong remedies, 
however, which Spalatin got for him, gave him temporary 
relief. 

He took exercise in the beautiful woods around the 
castle, and there, as he related afterwards, he used to look 
for strawberries. In August he had news to give Spalatin 
of a hunt, at which he had been present two days. He 
wished to look on at ' this bitter-sweet pleasure of heroes.' 
' We have,' he says, ' hunted two hares and a few poor little 
partridges ; truly a worthy occupation for idle people ! ' But 
among the nets and hounds he managed, as he says, to 
pursue theology. He saw in it all a picture of the devil, who 
by cunning and godless doctrines ensnares poor innocent 
creatures. Graver thoughts still were suggested to his mind 
by the fate of a little hare, which he had helped to save, 
and had rolled up in the long sleeve of his cloak, but which, 
on his putting it down afterwards and going away, the 
dogs caught and killed. ' Thus,' he says, ' do the Pope and 
Satan rage together, to destroy, despite my efforts, souls 
already saved.' 

At that time too he fancied he heard and saw all kinds 
of devil's noises and sights, which long afterwards he 
frequently described to his friends, but which he took at 
the time with great calmness. Such, for instance, were a 
strange continual rumbling in a chest in which he kept 
hazel nuts, nightly noises of falling on' the stairs, and the 
unaccountable appearance of a" black dog in his bed. 

Of the well-known ink-stain at the Wartburg we hear 
nothing either from those or after-times ; and a similar spot 
was shown in the last century at the Castle of Coburg, 
where Luther stayed in 1530. 

In the outer world, meanwhile, the great movement that 
emanated from Luther continued to advance and grow, in 
spite of his disappearance. It was apparent how powerless 
was his enforced absence to suppress it. Soon too it was to 



252 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

be seen how much on the other hand it depended on him thai 
the movement should not bring real danger and destruc 
tion. 

At Wittenberg his friends continued labouring faithfully 
and undisturbed. Much as Melancthon troubled himself 
about Luther and longed for his return, Luther relied with 
confidence upon him and his efforts, as rendering his own 
presence unnecessary. With joyful congratulations to 
his friend he acknowledged his receipt at the Wartburg 
of the sheets of his work — the Loci Communes — wherein 
Melancthon, whilst intending at first only to proclaim the 
fundamental principles and doctrines of the Bible, and 
especially of the Epistle to the Eomans, actually laid the 
foundation for the dogma of the Evangelical Church. 

Just at this time new forces had stepped in to further the 
work and the battle. Shortly before Luther's departure 
to Worms, John Bugenhagen of Pomerania had appeared at 
Wittenberg, — a man only two years younger than Luther, 
well trained in theology and humanistic learning, and already 
won over to Luther's doctrines by his writings, and more 
especially by his work on the Babylonish Captivity. He 
had made friends with Luther and Melancthon, and soon 
began to teach with them at the university. John Agricola 
from Eisleben had already taken part in the biblical 
lectures at the university, which was then the chief place 
for the exposition of evangelical doctrine. This man, born 
in 1494, had lived at Wittenberg since 1516. He had from 
the first been an adherent of Luther, and had w. i his 
confidence, as also that of Melancthon. He was now their 
fellow-lecturer at the university, and since the spring of 
1521 had been appointed by the town as catechist at the 
parish church, charged with the duty of teaching children 
religion. Wittenberg had also gained the services of the 
learned Justus Jonas, so conspicuous for his high culture, 
and a staunch and open friend of Luther. Shortly after 
his journey with Luther from Erfurt to the Diet of Worms, 



LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 253 

he obtained, by grant of the Elector, the office of provost to 
the church of All Saints at Wittenberg, and became a member 
also of the theological faculty at the university. The excom- 
munication under which Melancthon had fallen with Luther 
did not deter the mass of students from their cause. The 
academical youth who had assembled here from the whole 
of Germany, and from Switzerland, Poland, and other 
countries, were renowned for the exemplary unity in which, 
unlike their brethren in most of the universities in those 
days, they lived together and devoted themselves to the purest 
and most elevating studies. Everywhere students might be 
seen with Bibles in their hands ; the young nobles and sons 
of burghers applied themselves diligently to self- discipline ; 
and the drinking-bouts practised elsewhere, and so destruc- 
tive to the muses, were unknown among them. 

Luther, by his behaviour at Worms in particular, had 
fastened upon himself the eyes of all Germany. The pro- 
ceedings before the Diet, made known, as they would be 
nowadays, by the newspapers, were then published abroad 
by means of fugitive pamphlets of a longer or shorter kind, 
Luther's speech in particular was circulated from notes made 
partly by himself, partly by others. Day after day, and 
especially during the sittings of the Diet, a number of other 
short tracts and fly-sheets set forth, mainly in the form of a 
dialogue, a popular discussion and explanation of his cause. 
His fate at Worms was immediately proclaimed in a book 
called ' The Passion of Dr. Martin Luther,' the title of which 
sufficiently indicated the analogy suggested. Then came 
the stirring and disquieting news of his sudden kidnapping 
by the powers of. darkness ; rumours which only served to 
stimulate him further in his concealment to speak out and 
march forwards with undaunted courage and assurance. 

As writers who now began to labour for the cause in a 
similar spirit to Luther's and in a similarly popular style 
and manner, we must not omit to name the following. First 
and foremost was Eberlin of Gunzburg, formerly a Fran- 



254 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

ciscan at Tubingen; next, the Augustine monk Michael 
Stifel of Esslingen, who came himself to Wittenberg and 
joined there the circle of friends ; and lastly, the Franciscan 
Henry von Kettenbach at Ulm. The authors of some other 
influential works, such as the dialogue ' Neu Karsthans ' 
(Karsthans being a name for peasants), are not known with 
certainty. In these men and their writings, ideas and 
thoughts already made their appearance, going beyond the 
intentions of Luther, and into a territory which, from his 
standpoint of religion, he would rather have seen more 
exactly denned, and taking up weapons which he had rejected. 
Thus ' Karsthans ' contains the advice to break off, after the 
example of the Hussites in Bohemia, from most of the 
Churches, as being tainted with avarice and superstition ; 
and a rising against the clergy is contemplated, in which 
the nobles and peasants should combine. Eberlin, with his 
extraordinary energy, not content with the most compre- 
hensive and far-reaching schemes of ecclesiastical reform, 
plunged into questions affecting the wants of municipal, 
social, and political life, which Luther, in his Address to the 
German Nobility, had only briefly alluded to, and had care- 
fully distinguished from his own particular work in hand. 
To the dealings of the great merchants he showed himself 
more hostile even than Luther ; and put forward such pro- 
posals as the establishment by the civil authorities of a 
cheaper tariff of prices for provisions, the appointment to 
magisterial offices by election, for which peasants also should 
be qualified, and free rights of hunting and fishing. 

The Edict of Worms, intended to proscribe and suppress 
throughout Germany the heretic and his writings, was 
published in the different states and towns by the princes 
and magistrates ; but the power, and partly also the will, 
was wanting to enforce its execution. At Erfurt, shortly 
after Luther's passage through the town upon his way to 
Worms, the interference of the clergy against a member oi 
a religious institution which had taken part in the ovation 



LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 255 

accorded to the Eeformer, gave the first occasion to violent 
and repeated tumults. Students and townspeople attacked 
upwards of sixty houses of the priests, and demolished 
them. Luther told his friends at once, that he saw in 
this the work of Satan, who sought by this means to bring 
contempt and legitimate reproach upon the gospel. 

Elsewhere, and above all at Wittenberg, his followers 
busied themselves in his absence with putting into practice 
what he had defended with his words. Calmly and with 
mature deliberation and courage, Luther took part in their 
labours from the solitude of his watch-tower. He had a 
very lively and, as he himself confesses, often painful 
consciousness of his own responsibility, as the one who had 
put the first match to the great fire, and whose first duties 
lay with his Wittenberg brethren, as their teacher and 
pastor. 

Shortly after his arrival at the Wartburg, he received 
the news that Bartholomew Bernhardi of Feldkirchen, pro- 
vost in the little town of Kemberg near Wittenberg, had 
publicly, and with the consent of his congregation, taken a 
wife. He was not the first priest who had ventured to 
break the unchristian prohibition of marriage by the Bomish 
Church. But he was the most distinguished of such 
offenders hitherto, besides being a particular disciple of 
Luther and a man of unimpeachable integrity. Luther 
wrote about it to Melancthon, saying : ' I admire the newly 
married man, who in these stormy times has no fears, and 
has lost no time about it. May God guide him.' 

At Wittenberg it was now demanded, not without 
violence, that monasticism should be abolished, and that 
the mass and the Lord's Supper should be changed in 
conformity with the institution of Christ. It seemed as if 
here, in the place of Luther, who had gone before with the 
simple testimony of the Word and doctrine, two other men 
were now to step in as practical and energetic Eeformer s. 
One of them was Luther's old colleague, Carlstadt, who had 



256 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

returned in July from a short visit to Copenhagen, whithel 
the King of Denmark had invited him to promote the new 
evangelical theology at the university, but had soon again 
dismissed him, and who now assumed the lead at Witten- 
berg with a passionate and ambitious, but undeterminate 
zeal. The other was the Augustine monk, Gabriel Z willing, 
who had introduced himself to notice as a fiery preacher 
in the convent church, and in spite of his unattractive 
appearance and weak voice had drawn together a large 
congregation from the town and university, and fascinated 
them with his eloquence. A young Silesian wrote home 
from the university of Wittenberg about him, saying : ' God 
has raised up for us another prophet ; many call him a 
second Luther. Melancthon is never absent when he 
preaches.' 

For the clergy Carlstadt sought, by a perverse interpre- 
tation of Scripture, to make the married state into a law. 
Only married men were to be appointed to offices in the 
Church. For monks and nuns he claimed the liberty of 
renouncing their cloistered and celibate life, if they found its 
moral requirements insupportable ; but the biblical evidence 
that he adduced in support of this doctrine was unhappily 
ehosen ; and he still declared the renunciation of vows to be 
a sin, though justified by the avoidance thereby of a still 
greater sin, that of unchastity in monastic life. Luther had 
required that at the Lord's Supper the cup, in accordance 
with the original institution of Christ, should be given to the 
laity. Carlstadt and Zwilling, however, wished to make it a 
sin for a person to partake of the Communion without the cup 
being given to the communicants. Other changes also were 
now demanded in the mode of administering the elements, 
conformably with the Holy Supper held by Jesus Himself 
with His twelve disciples. Zwilling would have twelve 
communicants at a time partake of the bread and wine. It 
was further insisted that, like as at ordinary meals, the 
elements should be given into the hand of each individual 



LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 257 

to partake of, and not put into his mouth by the priest. 
The sacrifice of the mass Zwilling would abolish altogether, 
but Carlstadt thought it necessary, in dealing with so impor- 
tant a feature of the old form of worship, to proceed with 
caution. 

Upon these questions and proceedings Luther expressed 
his opinion early in August to Melancthon, who was keenly 
excited about them, but on many points was unsettled in 
his mind. The project of restoring at Wittenberg the 
celebration of the Lord's Supper, as originally instituted, 
with the cup, met with Luther's full approval; for the 
tyranny which the Christian congregations had hitherto 
endured in this respect had been acknowledged there, and 
there was a general wish to resist it. He declared further, 
with regard to private masses, that he was resolved 
never to say any more while he lived. But compulsion 
he would not dream of: if any who still suffered from 
this tyranny partook of the Communion without the cup, 
no man durst account it to him as a sin. As for the 
troubles of the monks and nuns, under their self-imposed 
vows, his sympathy for them was no less acute than that of 
his friends at Wittenberg, but the arguments by which they 
sought to help them to liberty he did not consider sound. 
He gave now this subject a more searching and deeper 
consideration, and shortly addressed a series of theses 
on celibacy to the bishops and deacons of the church at 
Wittenberg. He attacked vows in general, and assailed 
them at the very root. Inasmuch, moreover, as the vows 
of chastity, he said, and of other monastic observances were 
commonly made to God with the intent and purpose of 
working out one's own salvation by one's own works and 
righteousness, these were not vows in accordance with the 
will of God, but denials of the faith. And even though a 
man should have made a vow in a spirit of piety, he placed 
himself at all events, by his own will and act, under a re- 
straint and yoke at variance with the gospel and the liberty 



258 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

which faith in Christ bestows. Luther went still farther, 
and declared that the chastity enjoined upon the monk 
was only possible if he possessed the special gift of con- 
tinence spoken of by St. Paul. How dare a man make a 
vow to God, which God must first endue him with the 
power to keep ? A man, therefore, in vowing chastity, 
makes a vow which it is not really possible for him to keep, 
whilst true chastity is made possible for him by God in the 
married life which he condemns. These vows, accordingly, 
are radically vicious and displeasing to God, and cease to 
be binding on a Christian who has been made free in faith, 
and has recognised the true will of God. 

Personally concerned as Luther was, as an Augustine 
monk himself, in these questions which he discussed, he 
treated the liberty, which inwardly he knew himself to 
possess, as quietly and coolly as possible. On receiving the 
news from Wittenberg, he wrote to Spalatin, ' Good Heaven! 
our Wittenbergers will allow even the monks to have 
wives, but they shall not force me to take one.' And he 
asks Melancthon jokingly, if he was going to revenge him- 
self upon him for having helped him to get a wife ; he 
would know well enough how to guard against that. 

At Wittenberg there was great excitement, particularly 
on account of the mass. In the Augustinian convent 
there, the majority of the monks held with Zwilling ; they 
wished to celebrate the sacrament of the Lord's Supper 
in strict accordance with the institution of Christ. Their 
prior, Conrad Held, took the opposite side, and adhered to 
the ancient usage. Justus Jonas, the provost, expressed his 
views with equal ardour in the convent church attached 
to the university, and met with violent opposition from 
other members of the foundation. A committee, composed 
of deputies from the university and chapter of canons, from 
whom the Elector in October demanded a formal opinion on 
the subject, expressed by their majority the same view, and 
requested the Elector himself to abolish the abuse of the 



LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 259 

mass. But Frederick utterly rejected the idea of decreeing 
on his own authority innovations which would constitute a 
deviation from the great Christian Catholic Church, more 
especially as opinions were not agreed on them even at 
Wittenberg. He would do no more than give free scope 
and protection to the new testimony of biblical truth, until 
it should be properly sifted by the Church. In the church 
of the Augustinian convent, the mass and the Lord's 
Supper were now both suspended. 

Men set to work now in earnest to give effect to the 
new principles applied to monachism. Thirteen Augustine 
monks, about a third of the then inmates of the convent 
at Wittenberg, quitted that convent early in November, 
and cast away their cowls. Some of them took up at 
once a civil trade or handicraft. This step increased 
the growing feeling of hostility to the monks among the 
students and inhabitants of the town. All kinds of 
enormities ensued : monks were mocked at in the streets ; 
the convents were threatened ; and even the service of the 
mass was disturbed by rioters who forced their way into the 
parish church. 

Meanwhile Luther went on, in the quietness of his 
seclusion, to teach the Christian truth about vows and 
masses, to explain and establish his newly-acquired know- 
ledge and convictions, and to prepare by that means the 
way of ultimate reform. He composed a tract, in Latin 
and German, ' On the Abuse of Masses,' and another, in 
Latin, ' On Monastic Vows.' The latter he dedicated to his 
father, taking note of his protest against his entering the 
convent, and telling him with joy that he was now a free 
man, a monk, and yet no longer a monk. As for his 
brethren's desertion of the convent, however, he dis- 
approved the manner of it. They could, and should, have 
parted in peace and amity, not as they did, in a tumult. 
These two works he completed in November, and sent 
them to Spalatin, to have them printed at Wittenberg. 

s2 



260 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

In this manner Luther occupied himself from the summer 
to the winter, continuing all the while his biblical studies 
and the composition of his Church-Postills. But he was 
also preparing to deal a heavy blow at the Cardinal Albert. 
This prelate had abstained as yet, with great caution, from 
taking any stringent measures to prevent the spread of 
Lutheran preaching in his diocese. But he was in want 
of money. To supply this want, he published a work, 
giving news of a precious relic, which he had placed for 
view at Halle, his town, and inviting pilgrimages to see it. 
A multitude of other rich and wondrous relics had been 
collected there ; not only heaps of bones and entire corpses 
of saints, with a portion of the body of the patriarch 
Isaac, but also pieces of the manna, as it had fallen from 
heaven in the desert, little bits of the burning bush of 
Moses, jars from the wedding at Cana, and some of the whie 
into which Jesus there had changed the water, thorns from 
the Saviour's crown, one of the stones with which Stephen 
was stoned, and a multitude of other, in all nearly 9,000, 
relics. Whoever should attend with devotion at the exhibi- 
tion of these sacred treasures in the Collegiate Church at 
Halle, and should give a pious alms to the institution, was 
to receive a ' surpassing ' indulgence. The first exhibition 
of this kind took place about the beginning of September. 
Albert also had not scrupled to cause one of the priests 
who wished to marry to be imprisoned, though it was 
notorious how he himself made up for his celibacy by his 
loose living. 

Luther now, as he wrote to Spalatin on October 7, 152.1, 
could not restrain himself any longer from breaking out, 
in private and in public, against his ' Idol of indulgences ' 
and his scandalous whoredoms. He took no thought of the 
fact that his own pious Elector, only a few years before, had 
arranged a similar, though less showy exhibition of relics at 
the convent church at Wittenberg, and was thus indirectly 
assailed by reproaches now no longer deserved. By the end 



LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 261 

of the month Luther had a pamphlet ready for publication. 
But an attack of such a kind on a magnate like Albert, 
the great prince of the Empire, Elector of Mayence, and 
brother of the Elector of Brandenburg, was not to Frede- 
rick's taste, and he informed Luther, through Spalatin, 
that he forbade it. He would not sanction anything, he 
said, which might disturb the public peace. Luther told 
Spalatin, in his reply, that he had never read a more dis- 
agreeable letter than Frederick's. ' I will not put up with 
it,' he indignantly broke out ; ' I will rather lose you and the 
prince himself, and every living being. If I have stood up 
against the Pope, why should I yield to his creature ? ' He 
wished only to show his pamphlet first to Melancthon, and 
submit a few alterations in it to the judgment of his friend. 
For this purpose he sent it to Spalatin, requesting him to 
forward it. Then, on December 1, he wrote a letter to Albert 
himself. Its tone and contents indicate pretty plainly what 
the pamphlet itself contained. In clear vigorous German, 
and without any circumlocution, he submits to the Cardinal 
his 'humble request,' to abstain from corrupting the poor 
people, and not to show himself a wolf in bishop's clothing. 
He must surely know by this time that indulgences were 
sheer knavery and trickery. He was not to imagine that 
Luther was dead : Luther would trust cheerfully in God, 
and carry on a game with the Cardinal of Mayence, of which 
not many people were yet aware. As for the priests who 
had wished to marry, he warned the Archbishop that a 
cry would be raised from the gospel about it ; and the 
bishops would learn that they had better first pluck out the 
beam from their own eyes, and drive their own mistresses 
away. Luther concluded by giving him fourteen days for a 
'proper' answer; otherwise, w T hen that time expired, he would 
immediately publish his pamphlet on ' The Idol at Halle.' 

All this while, the news from Wittenberg kept Luther in 
a state of constant anxiety. The distance and the difficulty 
of correspondence had become quite insupportable. A 



262 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

few days after his letter of December 1, he suddenly 
re-appeared there among his friends. In secret, and accom- 
panied only by a servant, he had gone thither on horseback 
in his knight's dress. He stayed there for three days with 
Amsdorf. Only his most intimate friends were allowed to 
know of his arrival. His meeting with them again gave 
him, as he wrote to Spalatin, the keenest pleasure and en- 
joyment. But it was a bitter sorrow to hear that Spalatin 
would not look at, or listen to, his pamphlet against Albert, 
nor his tracts on masses and monastic vows, but had kept 
them back. What his friends now told him of their efforts 
and labours he approved of, and he wished them strength 
from above to persevere. But he had heard already, when 
on his way, of fresh outrages committed by some of the 
townspeople and students against the priests and monks, 
and henceforth he deemed it his nearest duty to warn them 
publicly against such acts of violence and disorder. 



263 



GHAPTEE II. 

luther's further sojourn at the wartburg, and his 
return to wittenberg, 1522. 

In secret, as he had first gone there, Luther returned to the 
Wartburg, and now set to work with his ' True Admonition 
for all Christians to abstain from turbulence and rebellion.' 
He had before his eyes the danger of an insurrection, 
involving the lives of all the priests and monks who opposed 
reform, and one in which the common people, in revenge 
for their many grievances, might fall to laying about them 
with clubs and flails, as the ' Karsthans ' threatened. To 
the princes, magistrates, and nobles, he had already 
addressed a demand to put a stop to the corruption of 
the Church and the tyranny of the Pope. Of the civil 
authorities and the nobility, he says now that ' they ought 
to do this, in duty to their ordinary position and power, 
every prince and lord on his own territory ; for what is 
brought about by the exercise of ordinary power is not to 
be accounted turbulence.' At the same time, to the masses 
and to individuals he plainly prohibits a rising by force. 
Turbulence was the usurpation of justice, and revenge, 
which God would not suffer, for He said, ' Eevenge is Mine.' 
All turbulence, he said, was wrong, however good might be 
the cause, and only made bad worse. As for the magistrates, 
he would not have them kill the priests, as once Moses and 
Elias had done to the worshippers of idols ; they were 
simply to forbid them from acting contrary to the gospel. 
Words would do more than was enough with them, so there 
was no need of hewing and stabbing. We have seen how 



264 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

emphatically Luther expressed himself to the same effect 
before he went to Worms. The Apostle's words that the 
Lord should consume the Antichrist with the Spirit of His 
Mouth, were to be fulfilled, according to Luther, in the 
words of gospel preaching. It was his own previous 
experience that had taught him to rely with such lofty 
confidence on the simple Word ; he had done more injury 
with it alone to the Pope, and the priests and monks, than 
all the emperors and princes had ever done with all their 
power. He still looked forward steadfastly to the approach 
of the Last Day, when Christ by His coming should utterly 
destroy the Pope, whose iniquity the Word had exposed. 
As he had done formerly in his treatise on Christian 
liberty, and had now good reason to do with the Witten- 
bergers, he exhorts men to a loving and merciful regard to 
their weaker brethren, whose consciences were still ensnared 
by the old ordinances respecting fasting and masses. They 
ought not to. be taken unawares, but instructed kindly 
and, if unable to agree at once, dealt with patiently. ' The 
wolves,' he says, ' cannot be treated too severely, nor the 
tender sheep too gently.' 

Luther's works on the mass and monastic vows were 
now actually in print. Cardinal Albert, however, gave the 
answer demanded by Luther, in a short letter of December 
21. He assured him that the subject of his complaint had 
been removed ; that as to himself, he did not deny that he 
was a miserable sinner, the very filth of the earth, as bad as 
anyone. Christian chastisement he could well endure ; he 
looked to God for grace and strength, to live according to 
His will. So abjectly did this magnate quail before the 
W'ord, with which Luther threatened to expose his doings. 
He must no doubt have been ashamed of his traffic in 
indulgences before all his Humanist friends^ and especially 
Erasmus ; and must have expected that the other scandals 
with which Luther charged him would be laid bare without 
mercy or regard. At the same time we see in all this, how 



LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 265 

perfectly free from reproach in this matter of morality must 
Luther have been, not only in his own conscience, but also 
in the eyes of Albert. Luther, on receiving this letter, 
doubted indeed the sincerity of its professions, and even 
abstained from acknowledging it. But he now finally 
abandoned, nevertheless, the publication of the pamphlet, 
intended to expose him, which had hitherto been hindered 
by the Elector. 

But the most important task that Luther now undertook, 
and in which he persevered with steadfast devotion during 
his further stay at the Wartburg, was one of a peaceful 
character, the most beautiful fruit of his seclusion, the 
noblest gift that he has bequeathed to his countrymen. 
This was his translation of the Bible — first of the New 
Testament. ' Our brethren demand it of me,' he wrote to 
Lange shortly after his return from Wittenberg. And in 
these words the wish was evidently expressed, or else laid 
to heart anew. The Bible, it is true, had been translated 
into German before Luther's time, but in a clumsy idiom 
that sounded foreign to the people, and not, like Luther's 
version, from the original text, but from the Latin translation 
used in the churches. Luther declared that no one could 
speak German of this outlandish kind, ' but,' he said, ' one 
has to ask the mother in her home, the children in the street, 
the common man in the market-place, and look at their 
mouths to see how they speak, and thence interpret it to one- 
self, and so make them understand. I have often laboured 
to do this, but have not always succeeded or hit the 
meaning.' None the less strictly and faithfully did he seek 
to adhere to the spirit of the text, and, where necessary, 
even to the letter. Such an interpretation, he said, re- 
quired a ' truly devout, faithful, diligent, fearful, Christian, 
learned, experienced , and practised heart.' Penetrated him- 
self with the substance and spirit of the Scriptures, he under- 
stood how to combine in his language, as if by intuition, 
a dignified tone and a national character. So hard did he 



266 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

work, that he finished the New Testament at the Wartburg 
in a few months ; he then wished to revise it with the help 
of Melancthon. 

Meanwhile, affairs at Wittenberg were assuming so 
serious an aspect as to make Luther's apprehensions 
increase from day to day. The question of monastic vows 
indeed was settled peaceably, and in a manner such as 
Luther would have desired, by some resolutions (so far as 
resolutions could settle it), passed by the Augustinian 
brethren at a chapter held at Wittenberg by Link, the 
Vicar of the Order. It was there resolved that free permis- 
sion should be given to leave the convent, but that those 
who preferred to adhere to the monastic life should remain 
there in voluntary but strict subordination to their superiors 
and to the established rules ; some of them should be 
employed in preaching the Word of God, others should con- 
tribute by manual labour to the support of the institution. 
Outside, however, among the people of Wittenberg, Carlstadt, 
who had shortly before restrained even his own partisans 
in regard to the question of the mass, and who was neither 
a regular preacher in the town nor in the possession of any 
other office, now pressed forward, by his sermons and 
writings, impetuously in the van, and made hasty strides 
towards the furtherance of his misty projects of reform. 
Anticipating a prohibition from the Elector, he celebrated 
the Lord's Supper at Christmas in the new manner. Even 
the usual vestments were discarded as idolatrous : Z willing 
performed the service in a student's gown. The people 
were enjoined to eat meat and eggs on fast days ; and 
confession was no longer held before the Communion. 
Carlstadt went further, and denounced the pictures and 
images in the churches ; it was not enough to desist from 
worshipping them, nor durst it be hinted that they served 
as books for the instruction of laymen. God had plainly 
forbidden them ; their proper place was in the fire and not 
in God's house. Whilst the town-council, at his instance, 



LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 267 

resolved to have the images removed from the parish 
church, some of the populace stormed in, tore them down, 
hewed them to pieces, and burned them. 

Luther himself, even with regard to rites and ordinances 
which he rejected altogether, always counselled moderation 
and patience towards the weak. He could not believe that 
the great body of his Wittenberg congregation were already 
ripe for such changes, or that many conscientious but weaker 
brethren among them were not in need of tender considera- 
tion. People might say that it was only a question of time ; 
well, he did not wish to delay genuine reform for ever, 
merely to humour the minority. But it was precisely that 
those members should have proper time allowed them, and 
every means taken for their instruction and edification, that 
was to Luther a matter of conscience. External matters, 
of which the other Eeformers made so much, such as eating 
on fast days, the taking with one's own hands the bread 
and wine at the Communion, and so forth, he regarded as 
trifles, the performance or non-performance of which in no 
way affected the true liberty of the faithful, while grievous 
wrong was done to the souls of the weaker brethren, if 
they were compelled to do anything therein against their 
consciences. 'By acting thus,' he says, 'you have made 
many consciences miserable ; if they had to give an account 
on their death-beds, or when troubled with temptation, they 
would not for the life of them know why or how they had 
offended.' Nay, he accuses a man of corrupting souls, who 
' plunges ' them carelessly into practices that offend their 
consciences. ' You wish,' he says, ' to serve God, and you 
don't know that you are the forerunners of the devil. He 
has begun by attempting to dishonour the Word ; he has 
set you to work at that bit of folly, so that meanwhile you 
may forget faith and love.' Thus Luther wrote in a work 
intended for the Wittenbergers. Even the innovations 
with regard to pictures and images he numbers among the 
'' trivial matters which are not worth the sacrifice of faith 



268 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

and love.' Those which represented truly Christian subjects 
he would preserve at all times, and he valued them highly. 

These Wittenberg Keformers, however, with all their 
desire to assert the higher spiritual character of evangelical 
Christianity, still remained devotees, in their peculiar ' spirit,' 
to the externals of worship and, in regard to images, to the 
letter of the Old Testament law. And yet their conception of 
the Christian spirit and of Christian revelation produced 
results of another and still stranger kind. Not only did 
they repudiate all titles and dignities conferred by the 
university, on the plea that, in the words of Christ, no man 
durst call himself Eabbi or master, but Carlstadt and 
Z willing now openly expressed their contempt of all human 
theology and biblical learning. God, they said, has hid 
these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed 
them unto babes ; the Spirit from above must enlighten 
a man. Carlstadt went to simple burghers in their houses, 
to have passages in the Bible explained to him. He and 
Z willing won over to their side the master of the boys' 
school in the town, and the school was broken up. A new 
municipal constitution, supported by the magistracy, made 
strange inroads on the rights of the citizens and the domain 
of social life ; a common chest, containing the revenues of the 
Church, was utilised for advancing money without interest 
to needy handicraftsmen, and making loans to other towns- 
men at a low rate of interest. Meantime the spiritual 
wants of the community were neglected, and in the hospitals 
and prisons entirely overlooked. 

Such was the direction here taken by the reform for 
which Luther's preaching had prepared the way. And just 
at this time, at Christmas, three fanatics came to Wittenberg 
from Zwickau, with the object of taking part in the move- 
ment and furthering the work of God. These were Nicholas 
Storch, a weaver, Mark Stiibner, a former student at 
Wittenberg, and another weaver, who were now zealously 
joined by the theologian Martin Cellarius. They boasted 



LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 269 

of a direct revelation from God, of prophetic visions, dreams, 
and familiar conversations with the Deity. Compared with 
these pretensions, Scripture was a thing of small importance 
in their eyes. They rejected infant baptism, as incapable 
of imparting the Spirit. For communion and intercourse 
with God they looked not to faith, which, as Luther taught, 
accepts submissively what the Word of God reveals to the 
conscience and the heart, but to a mystic process of self- 
abstraction from everything external, sensual, and finite, 
until the soul becomes immovably centred in the one Divine 
Being. This spirit, seemingly so elevated and pure, broke 
out nevertheless into fanaticism of the wildest kind, by 
proclaiming and demanding a general revolution, in which 
all the priests were to be killed, all godless men destroyed, 
and the kingdom of God established. 

These fanatical displays had begun at Zwickau, no doubt 
under Bohemian influence, and were characterised by the 
ravings common to the middle ages. Thomas Miinzer, from 
Stolberg in the Harz country, who was a preacher at one 
of the churches, took the lead ; and he was certainly the most 
important and most dangerous personage among them. He 
accounted the civil authorities, with their rights, no more as 
Christians than he did the clergy and the hierarchy ; and 
began already to prate of universal equality and communism. 
This novel and exciting doctrine soon won adherents, and 
propagated the ' spirit of revelation.' Already disturbances 
were brewing. But the magistrates took vigorous and 
timely measures. Storch, Stiibner, and Cellarius fled to 
Wittenberg, while Miinzer roamed about elsewhere in 
Germany. 

Carlstadt went on with his innovations without allying 
himself outwardly with these refugees. But the connection 
of his aims with theirs could not be mistaken, and as time 
went on, became more and more apparent. Melancthon, 
with all his refinement and purity of soul, had not suffi- 
cient energy and independence to bridle the passions and 



270 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

forces that had been aroused by Carlstadt. The Zwickau 
prophets, with their visions and revelations, haunted him ; 
he seemed incapable of forming any settled or sober judg- 
ment on this strange and sudden phenomenon. 

Luther, on the contrary, received the news with calm- 
ness and composure. He marvelled at the anxiety of his 
friend, who in intellect and learning was his superior. He 
found no difficulty in testing these enthusiasts by the 
standard of the New Testament. There was nothing, he 
said, in their words and acts, so far as he had heard any- 
thing of them, which the devil might not do or mimic. As 
for their so-called ecstasies of devotion, there was nothing 
in all that, even though they boasted of being rapt into the 
third heaven. The Majesty of God was not wont to hold 
such familiar converse with men in old time. The creature 
must first perish before his Creator, as before a consuming 
fire : when God speaks, he must feel the meaning of the 
words of Isaiah, ' As a lion, so will he break all my bones.' 
And yet Luther would not have them imprisoned or dealt 
with by violence ; they could be disposed of without blood- 
shed and the sword, and be laughed out of their folly. 

But his cares for his Wittenberg -congregation and the 
trouble which Carlstadt' s doings there were giving him, left 
him no peace. He could not justify those acts before God 
and the world : they lay upon his own shoulders, and above 
all, they brought discredit on the gospel. In January he 
went back to Wittenberg. He was entreated to do so by 
the magistrates. In vain did the Elector attempt to detain 
him, and so prevent his risking an appearance in public. 
Moreover, the Council of Eegency at Nuremberg, which 
represented the Emperor in his absence, had just demanded 
of Frederick a strict suppression of the innovations at 
Wittenberg. 

Luther quitted the Wartburg, without leave, on March 1. 
About his journey thence we only know that he passed 
through Jena and the town of Borna, lying south of 



LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 271 

Leipzig. A young Swiss, John Kessler from St. Gallen, who 
was then on his way with a companion to the university at 
Wittenberg, has left us an interesting account of their meet- 
ing with Luther at the inn of the ' Black Bear,' just outside 
Jena. They found there a solitary horseman sitting at 
the table, ' dressed after the fashion of the country in a red 
schlepli (or slouched hat), plain hose and doublet— he had 
thrown aside his tabard— with a sword at his side, his right 
hand resting on the pommel, and the other grasping the 
hilt.' Before him lay a little book. He invited them in a 
friendly manner, bashful as they were, to take a seat by him, 
and spoke to them about the Wittenberg studies, about 
Melancthon and other men of learning, and. as to what 
people thought of Luther in Switzerland. Discoursing thus, 
he made them feel so much at ease, that Kessler's com- 
panion took up the little book lying before him, and opened 
it : it was a Hebrew Psalter. At supper, where they were 
joined by two merchants, he paid for Kessler and his friend, 
and fascinated them all by his ' agreeable and godly dis- 
course.' Afterwards he drank with his young friends ' one 
more friendly glass for a blessing,' gave them his hand at 
parting, and charged them to greet the jurist Schurf at 
Wittenberg, who was a fellow-countryman of theirs by birth, 
with the words ' He who is coming, salutes you.' The host 
had recognised Luther, and told his guests who he was. 
Early next morning the merchants found him in the stable : 
he mounted his horse, and rode forward on his way. 

At Borna, where he lodged with an official of the Elector, 
he wrote in haste a long answer to the warning instructions 
of his prince, conveyed to him by the governor of Eisenach on 
the eve of his departure. He did not seek to excuse himself, 
or to beg forgiveness, but to quiet his ' most gracious High- 
ness,' and confirm him in the faith. He had never spoken 
with greater certainty about what he had to do, nor with a 
calmer and more joyful, bold, and proud assurance, in view of 
what lay before him, than now, when he had to encounter, 



272 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

on two contrary sides, opposition and danger. In his resolve 
and his hopes he threw himself entirely on his God. ' I go 
to Wittenberg,' he writes to Frederick, ' under a far higher 
protection than yours. Nay, I hold that I can offer your 
Highness more protection than your Highness can offer 
me. . . God alone must be the worker here, without any 
human care or help ; therefore, he who has the most faith 
will be able to give the most protection.' To the question 
what the Elector should do in his cause, he answered, 
'nothing at all.' The Elector must allow the Imperial 
authorities to exercise their powers in his territory without 
let or hindrance, even if they chose to seize him or put him 
to death. The Elector would surely not be called on to be 
his executioner. Should he leave the door open and give 
safe-conduct to those who sought to capture him, he would 
have done his duty quite enough. 

Luther rode on undaunted, even through the territory 
of Duke George, who was now violently exasperated with 
him and the people of Wittenberg ; and on the evening of 
March 6 he reached his destination and his friends, safe in 
body and happy in his mind. 

On the morning of the following Saturday, Kessler and 
his companion, on visiting Schurf, found Luther sitting 
at his house with Melancthon, Jonas, and Amsdorf, and 
telling them about his doings. Kessler thus describes his 
appearance. ' When I saw Martin in 1522, he was some- 
what stout, but upright, bending backwards rather than 
stooping ; with a face upturned to heaven ; with deep, dark 
eyes and eyebrows, twinkling and sparkling like stars, so that 
one could hardly look steadily at them.' 



273 



CHAPTEK III. 

luther's re- appearance and fresh labours at 
wittenberg, 1522. 

It was on a Thursday that Luther arrived again at Witten- 
berg. The very next Sunday he re-appeared in his old 
pulpit among his town congregation. In clear, simple, 
earnest, and Scriptural language he endeavoured to explain 
to them their errors, and to lead them again into the right 
way. For eight successive days he preached in this man- 
ner. The truths and principles he propounded were the 
same that he uttered from the Wartburg, and, indeed, ever 
since his career of reformation began. Above all things 
he exhorted them to charity, and to deal with their faithful 
fellow- Christians as God had dealt with them in His love, 
whereof through faith they were partakers. ' In this, dear 
friends,' he said, ' you are almost entirely wanting, and not 
a trace of charity can I see in you, but perceive rather 
that you have not been thankful to God. I see, indeed, 
that you can discourse well enough on the doctrines of faith 
and love which have been preached to you, and no wonder : 
cannot even a donkey sing his lesson ? and should you not 
then speak and teach the doctrine or the little Word ? But 
the kingdom of God does not consist in talk or words, but 
in deeds, in works and practice.' He taught them to dis- 
tinguish between what was obligatory and what was free, 
between what was to be observed or what was not. Charity 
must be practised, he said, even in essentials, since no man 
must compel his brother by force, but must let the Word 
operate on the hearts of the weak and erring, and pray for 

t 



274 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

them. Whatever is free must be left free, so as not to 
cause vexation to the weak ; but against unchristian tyrants 
a stand must be made for freedom. 

Thus, with the sheer power and fervour of his eloquence, 
Luther prevailed with his congregation, and soon had the 
conduct of the Church movement again in his hands. Zwill- 
ing allowed himself to be reproved. Carlstadt shrank back 
silently, though sullenly ; Luther earnestly begged him not 
to publish anything hostile and thus compel him to a battle. 
In his sermons he refrained from all personal references. Of 
the recent innovations, only one was retained, the omission 
from the mass of the words relating to the sacrifice of the 
Body of Christ by the priests. Luther considered them 
downright objectionable and unchristian ; and important as 
they were in themselves, they were scarcely noticed by the 
weak and simple, being uttered in Latin, and in a low voice. 
The sacrament was again administered to the majority in 
one kind ; and only those who expressly desired it could 
receive it with the lay-cup at an altar set aside for the pur- 
pose. The latter form of celebration, however, soon became 
the general custom, to the exclusion of the former. As 
regards the vestments to be worn during service, the taking 
the elements into one's own hand, and such-like matters, 
Lather maintained that they were too trifling to make a 
fuss about, or to be allowed to be a stumbling-block to the 
weak adherents of the old sj^stem. Luther himself returned 
to live at the convent, resumed his cowl, and observed 
again the customary ordinance of fasting. It was only after 
two years, when his frock was quite worn out, and he had 
a new suit made of some good cloth which the Elector had 
given him, that he laid aside altogether his monk's dress. 

The prophets of Zwickau were away from Wittenberg 
at the moment when Luther returned there. A few weeks 
after Stubner and Cellarius appeared before Luther. Then 
real character and spirit were now fully shown him by 
the arrogance and violence with which they demanded 



LUTHER'S RE-APPEARANCE AT WITTENBERG. 275 

belief in their superior authority, and by their outburst of 
rage when he ventured to contradict them. He writes thus 
to Spalatin : ' I have caught them even in open lying ; when 
they tried to evade me with miserable smooth words, I at 
last bade them prove their teaching by miracles, of which 
they boasted against the Scriptures. This they refused, 
but threatened that I should have to believe them some 
day. Thereupon I told them that their God could work no 
miracle against the will of my God. Thus we separated.' 
They then left the town for ever, without having gained 
any ground there. 

Thus Luther, who was accused by his enemies of sub- 
verting all ordinances of the Church, began his practical 
labours of reform by checking, through the firmness and 
clearness of his principles, the violence of others, and 
concentrating all his thoughts on the spiritual welfare of 
his congregation. The preacher of free and saving faith 
was the foremost to insist, in the practical conduct of the 
Church, upon the active exercise of brotherly love in the 
service of true freedom. The great man of the people 
opposed himself, regardless of popular favour or dislike, to 
the current which had now become national. Under the 
influence of his preaching the Elector could now quietly 
allow matters in Wittenberg and the neighbourhood to 
shape their further course in quiet. Nevertheless, he per- 
mitted the neighbouring bishops to work against the new 
doctrines by visitations in his country ; he only denied 
them the assistance of magisterial compulsion and temporal 
penalties. The truth should make its own way. 

Luther, immediately on his return to Wittenberg, was 
impatient to explain in full to German Christendom his 
position, without the restraints imposed on his words during 
his residence at the Wartburg. This he did in a letter 
to the knight Hartmuth von Kronberg, near Frankfort- 
on-the-Main, which he intended for publication. The latter, 
son-in-law to Sickingen, a man of upright, honourable, 

r 2 



276 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

Christian character, had published a couple of little tracts 
in Luther's spirit. Luther, by his letter, wished to ' visit 
him in spirit and make known to him his j-oy.' He took 
the opportunity, at the same time, of speaking his mind 
plainly, both about the contest he had to wage at Witten- 
berg, and the hostility to the gospel displayed by Roman- 
ists in Germany. But harder yet for the faith than the 
snares of such enemies, appeared to him ' the cunning 
game ' devised by Satan at Wittenberg, to bring reproach 
upon the gospel. ' Not all my enemies,' he said, ' have hit 
me as I now am hit by our people, and I must confess 
that the smoke makes my eyes smart and almost tickles 
my heart. " Hereby," thought the Evil One, " I will take 
the heart out of Luther and weary the tough spirit : this 
attack he will neither understand nor conquer ! " Fear- 
lessly also, and in a manner which would have been 
impossible to him at the Wartburg, he spoke out against 
the grievous ' sin at Worms, when the truth of God was 
so childishly despised, so publicly, defiantly, wilfully con- 
demned ; ' it was a sin of the whole German nation, because 
the heads had done this, and no one at the godless Diet had 
opposed them. He reproached himself with having, in 
order to please good friends there, and not to appear too 
obstinate, smothered his feelings and not spoken out his 
belief with more vigour and decision before the tyrants, 
however much the unbelieving heathens might have abused 
him for answering haughtily. Of one of his ' miserable 
enemies ' he says : ' The chief one is the water-bladder N., 
who defies Heaven with his high stomach, and has re- 
nounced the gospel. He would like to devour Christ, as 
the wolf does a gnat.' This was an unmistakable allusion 
to Duke George, who, in his bigoted devotion to the Church, 
was especially excited by the dangerous influences which 
threatened his country from the neighbouring Wittenberg, 
and who shortly before had made violent complaints on that 
account to the Elector Frederick. Indeed, in a copy of this 



LUTHER'S RE-APPEARANCE AT WITTENBERG. 277 

letter, he was mentioned by name. Duke George after- 
wards demanded satisfaction, but the matter was prolonged 
without any result. Luther informs Hartmuth of his 
return to Wittenberg, but adds that he does not know how 
long he will remain there. He announces to him the por- 
tion of his Postills which had just been published, and 
states that he had made up his mind to translate the Bible 
into German. This, he said, was necessary for him, for it 
would show him his mistake in fancying he was a learned 
man. 

Luther now threw himself into his work in all its 
branches. He resumed his academical lectures as well as 
the regular preaching in the town church, and he also 
preached on week days on the different books of the Bible. 
These sermons he continued when, in the following year, 
after the death of the old pastor Heins, for whom he had 
hitherto acted as deputy, his friend Bugenhagen was ap- 
pointed to the living. He and Bugenhagen remained from 
now until the latter died, united by personal friendship and 
common theological views, and laboured faithfully together 
in the service of their parochial congregation. Bugenhagen, 
as town pastor, appears as one of the most prominent 
figures in the history of Wittenberg at this time. Luther 
assisted him and his congregation with unselfish affection 
and friendship, and in turn made confidential use of his 
services as pastor and father-confessor. 

During the busy times of Lent and Easter, 1522, 
Luther had again undertaken duty among the Wittenberg 
congregation, and immediately after Easter he visited 
Borna, Altenburg, Zwickau, and Eilenburg, where the 
people were longing to hear his preaching, and where he 
exerted himself to have an evangelical preacher appointed. 
His eyes indeed were chiefly fixed on Zwickau, where he 
was resolved to counteract finally by his words the conse- 
quences of the recent infatuation. According to a report 
made by a state official, 25,000 people assembled to hear 



278 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

Luther, who preached from a balcony of the town-hall to the 
multitude gathered below. At Borna he preached imme- 
diately before a visitation held there by the Bishop of Merse- 
burg, and again on the day after it. During the following 
autumn he also preached several times at Weimar, whither 
he had been invited by John, the brother of the Elector 
Frederick ; and likewise before the congregation at Erfurt, 
to whom during the summer he had addressed an in- 




FlG. 27. — BtTGENHAGEN. 

From a picture by Cranach in his alburn, (at Berlin,) 1543. 

structive exhortation in writing on the subject of the 
innovations. 

Even at Wittenberg his literary labours, as we have 
seen from his letter to Kronberg, were still mainly devoted 
to the Bible. In concert with Melancthon, and with the 
assistance of other friends, he set about a revision of his 
translation of the New Testament. He sent the first sheets 
when printed to Spalatin, on May 10, as a ' foretaste of 
our new Bible.' With the aid of three presses the printing 



LUTHER'S RE-APPEARANCE AT WITTENBERG. 279 

progressed so rapidly, that already in September the work 
was ready for publication. September 21, dedicated to 
St. Matthew, is distinguished as the birthday of the German 
New Testament. In December already a second edition 
was called for, though the price of the book, a florin and a 
half, was a high one at that time. 

The work was greedily and thankfully pounced upon by 
many thousands in all parts of Germany, who had learnt 
from Luther to distinguish the ' pure Word of God ' from 
the dogmas of the Church, and to honour it accordingly. 
Nor could any means more powerful than this be 
found of spreading the doctrine thus founded on the 
"Word of God, and making it the real property of hearers 
and readers. All the greater was the danger recognised 
herein by those who adhered to ecclesiastical authority 
and traditions. Of great significance for both sides are the 
words of one of the most violent of Luther's contemporary 
opponents, the theologian Cochlseus : ' Luther's New Testa- 
ment was multiplied by the printers in a most wonderful 
degree, so that even shoemakers and women, and every and 
any lay person acquainted wifh. ehe German type, read it 
greedily as the fountain of all truth, and by repeatedly 
reading it, impressed it on their memory. By this means 
they acquired in a few months so much knowledge, that they 
ventured to dispute, not only with Catholic laymen, but 
even with masters and doctors of theology, about faith 
and the gospel. Luther himself, indeed, had long before 
taught that even Christian women, and everyone who had 
been baptized, were in truth priests, as much as pope, 
bishop, and priests. The crowd of Lutherans gave them- 
selves far more trouble in learning the translation of the 
Bible than did the Catholics, where the laity left such 
matters chiefly to the priests and monks.' The Catholic 
authorities immediately issued orders forbidding the book, 
and directing it to be delivered up and confiscated. They 
hastened also to accuse the translation of a number of pre- 



280 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

tended errors and falsifications, which were mostly corrections 
of passages mistranslated in the established Latin version 
from the words of the original Greek text. Cochlseus 
brought one particular charge against Luther's translation, 
that he had ventured to alter the beginning of the Lord's 
Prayer in contradiction to the Universal, including the 
German Church, and likewise to the original text, by sub- 
stituting ' Unser Vater in dem Himmel ' for ' Vater unser, 
der du bist im Himmel.' (' Our Father in Heaven,' for 
'Our Father which art in Heaven'). When, some years 
later, Emser published a rival translation of the New Testa- 
ment, it was found to be in great part a transcript of 
Luther's, with only a few corrections according to the old 
Latin. 

Whilst the New Testament was still in the press, Luther 
set zealously to work on the Old. Here he encountered 
more difficulties, on account of the language ; but he had 
long been studying Hebrew with devotion and zeal, and 
moreover he could now get the assistance of his new 
colleague, Aurogallus, who was especially famous for teach- 
ing Hebrew. Before Christmas the five Books of Moses 
were ready for press ; these were to be published by them- 
selves. In 1524 they were followed by two other parts, 
containing the biblical books (according to the present 
German order) up to the Song of Solomon. His translation 
of the prophets, interrupted by other work, was delayed for 
several years. 

Nor was Luther's sharp pen long idle against Borne, as 
indeed might have been anticipated from his letter to 
Kronberg. He found his chief occasion for attack in a 
series of new edicts and other measures of the German 
bishops against the innovations — the abolition of clerical 
celibacy, the transgression of the laws of fasting, and so 
on. For this purpose ecclesiastical visitations were under- 
taken by the Bishops of Meissen and Merseburg, such as 
have already been alluded to when Luther went to Zwickau 



LUTHER'S RE-APPEARANCE AT WITTENBERG. 281 

Luther's sermons against the abuse of Christian liberty 
were followed by a small tract' entitled ' On the necessity 
of avoiding human doctrine.' He did not mean it, as he 
said, for those ' bold, intemperate heads ; ' but he wished 
to preach Christian liberty to the poor, humble con- 
sciences, enslaved by monkish vows and ordinances, that 
they might be instructed how,, by God's help and with- 
out danger, to escape and to use their liberty discreetly. 
Against the existing Romish episcopacy he declared war to 
the knife in a treatise ' Against the Order, falsely called 
Spiritual, of Pope and Bishops.' He who had been robbed 
of his title of priest and doctor by the displeasure of Pope 
and Emperor, and from whom, by Papal bulls, the * mark 
of the beast ' (Rev. xiii. 16) was washed off, confronts the 
' popish bishops ' now, as ' by God's grace, preacher at 
Wittenberg.' 

Luther's further writings against the Romish Churchdom 
and dogma do not possess the same interest for us as his 
earlier ones, inasmuch as they no longer show the progress 
and development of his own views on the Church. In the 
violent language he now employs he vents his chief anger 
in complaining that he, and the truth he represented, ' had 
been condemned unheard — an unexampled proceeding — un- 
refuted, and in headlong and criminal haste.' 

With reference to the attack he had made on the 
' episcopal masqueraders ' in the tract above mentioned, 
Luther remarked in a letter to Spalatin on Jury 26 that 
he had purposely been so sharp in it, because he saw how 
vainly he had humbled himself, yielded, prayed and com- 
plained. And he added that he would just as little natter 
the King of England. 

King Henry VIII., who later on, for other reasons, broke 
so entirely with the Church of Rome and began reforms 
after his own fashion, had at that time gained for himself 
from the Pope the title of ' Defender of the Faith,' on 
account of a learned scholastic treatise against Luther's 



282 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

1 Babylonish Captivity.' This treatise had made such a 
stir, that Luther thought it expedient to answer it in one 
of his own. The latter, originally written in Latin, gives a 
carefully considered explanation of the points of doctrine 
at issue, and proceeds to prove the propositions he had 
previously advanced. He points out fundamental, and, 
indeed, irreconcilable variance between his principles and 
those of the King, by . showing how he, Luther, fought 
for freedom and established it, while the King, on the 
contrary, took up the cudgels for captivity, without even 
attempting to justify it by argument, but simply kept 
talking of what it consists of, and how people must be con- 
tent to remain in it. In fact, the whole book was a mere 
reiteration of the dogmas of ecclesiastical authorities, of 
the Councils, and of tradition, always taking it for granted 
that these dare not be disputed. ' I do not need,' says 
Luther, ' the King to teach me this.' But the personal 
tone adopted by Luther against Henry went beyond any- 
thing that his expressions to Spalatin might have led one 
to expect, and was even more marked in a German edition 
of his treatise, which he published after the royal one had 
been translated into German. The King had, moreover, 
set the example of abuse, as coarse and defiant as that of 
his opponent. Luther did not shrink from an incidental 
remark at, the expense of other princes. ' King Henry,' he 
says, ' must help to prove the truth of the proverb, that 
there are no greater fools than kings and princes.' 

But the most important among the works which Luther 
was now led to undertake by his opposition to the Bomish 
Church and her teaching, and by her hostile proceedings 
against himself, was a treatise on the secular power, which 
he began in December, as soon as he had finished the 
translation of the five Books of Moses. It appeared under 
the title of ' On the Secular Power, and how far obedience is 
due to it.' 

How far obedience is due to it ? This was the question 



LUTHER'S RE-APPEARANCE AT WITTENBERG. 283 

provoked by the commands and threats of punishment 
with which Catholic princes were now endeavouring to aid 
the spiritual power in suppressing the gospel, the writings 
on reform, and especially the new translation of the Bible. 
The question was, how far a Christian was bound to obey. 

Nor had Luther to step forward less decisively as the 
champion of the rights, the Divine authority, and the dignity 
of the civil pow 7 er, against the pretensions of the Catholic 
Church. Words of Jesus such as these lay before him : 
' But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil : but whosoever 
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other 
also.' How could these words be reconciled with the fact that 
the secular arm resisted wrong with force, and raised the swx>rd 
against the evil-doer ? The Church of the middle ages and 
the School theology maintained that these words were not 
general moral commands for all Christians, but merely 
advice for those among them who wished to attain a higher 
degree of perfection. Hereby the whole civil government 
with its authorities was assigned a lower grade of ordi- 
nary morality, whilst higher morality or true perfection was 
to be represented in the priestly office and monasticism. 
On the other hand, friends of Luther, ere now r , while taking 
note that Christ had spoken these words direct to all his 
disciples, and therefore to all Christians, had been troubled 
to know 7 how 7 to establish, with regard to Christians, the 
rights and duties of temporal power. 

With respect to this second point in particular Luther 
now gives his explanation. Those w T ords of Christ were un- 
questionably commands for all Christians. They demand of 
every Christian that he should never on his own account 
grasp the sword and employ force ; and if only the world 
were full of good Christians there would be no need of the 
sword of secular authority. But it is necessary to wield it 
against evil for the general welfare, to punish sin and to 
preserve the peace ; and therefore the true Christian, in or- 
'*er thereby to serve his neighbour, must willingly submit to 



284 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

the rule of this sword, and, if God assigns him an office, must 
wield this sword himself. This command of Scripture is 
confirmed by other passages, as for instance by the words 
of the Apostle : ' Let every soul be subject unto the higher 
powers. For there is no power but of God : the powers that 
be are ordained of God. For he is the minister of God to 
thee for good . . . for he beareth not the sword in vain.' 
(Eomans xiii.). Luther thus ranks the vocation of civil 
government together with the other vocations of moral life 
in the world. They are all, he said, instituted by God, and all 
of them, no less than the so-called priestly office, are intended 
and able to serve God and one's neighbour. These were ideas 
which laid the foundation for a new Christian estimate of 
political, civic, and temporal life in general. Thus, later on, 
the Augsburg Confession rejected the doctrine that to attain 
evangelical perfection, a man must renounce his worldly 
calling, as also the theory of the Anabaptists, who would 
allow no Christian to hold civil office or to wield the sword. 
But Luther, while thus determining the province of 
secular authority, took care to impose limits on its juris- 
diction, and to guard against those limits being invaded. 
The true spiritual government, as instituted by Christ, was 
intended to make men good, by working upon the soul by 
the Word, in the power of the Spirit. The temporal 
government, whose duty it was to secure external peace and 
order, and to protect men against evil-doers, extends only to 
'what is external upon earth,'— over person and property. 
' For God cannot and will not allow anyone but Himself 
alone to rule the soul.' — ' No one can or shall force another 
to believe.' — ' True is the proverb : " Thoughts are free of 
taxes."' We must 'obey God rather than man,' as St. 
Peter says : these words impose a limit on temporal power. 
Luther is aware of the objection, that the temporal power 
does not force a man to believe, but only outwardly guards 
against heretics, to prevent them from leading the people 
astray with false doctrines. But he answers : ' Such an 



LUTHER'S RE-APPEARANCE AT WITTENBERG. 285 

office belongs to bishops, and not to princes. God's "Word 
must here contend for mastery. Heresy is something spiri- 
tual, that cannot be hewn with steel nor burned with fire.' 
And among these invasions of the province and office of 
the Word, Luther includes the edict to confiscate books. 
Herein must subjects obey God rather than such tyrannical 
princes. They are to leave the exercise of outward power, 
even in this matter, to the civil authorities, they must never 
venture to oppose them by force ; they must suffer it, if 
men invade their houses, and take away their books or 
property. But if they attempt to rob them of their Bible, 
they must not surrender a page or a letter. 

These are the most powerful and comprehensive utter- 
ances which w T e possess from the mouth of the Reformer, 
about the demarcation of these provinces of authority, the 
independent operation of the Word and the Spirit, and 
liberty of conscience. It is doubtful, indeed, how far they 
are consonant with those measures which he afterwards 
found admissible and advisable for the protection of evan- 
gelical communities and evangelical truth against those who 
attempted to lead them astray. 

Amidst such active labours the year of Luther's return 
to Wittenberg passed away. 



286 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 



CHAPTEK IV. 

LUTHER AND HIS ANTI- CATHOLIC WORK OF REFORMATION, 
UP TO 1525 

Luther, as we have seen, was able to prosecute his labours 
at Wittenberg, undisturbed by the act of the Diet. In 
other parts of Germany as well, the imperial power left 
wide scope for the spread of his teaching. At the next 
approaching Diet at Nuremberg no majority could be looked 
for again, to give effect to the consequences demanded by 
the Edict of Worms. Any such expectation was the more 
futile, from the results, already experienced, of Luther's re- 
appearance in public. 

The new Pope, Hadrian VI., whilst adhering strictly 
to the doctrines of mediaeval Scholasticism and of Church 
authority, nevertheless, by his honest avowal of eccle- 
siastical abuses, and the firmness and earnestness of his 
personal character, led men to expect a new era of 
energetic reform for the Eomish Church, at least in regard 
to the discipline of the clergy and monks, and to a 
conscientious restraint of Church ordinances, so that 
even men like Erasmus might rest content. And yet, 
he was the very one who sought now to stamp out with all 
severity the Lutheran heresy and its innovations. With 
this object he broke out into low abuse and slander against 
Luther personally, as a drunkard and a debauchee. Libels 
of this kind were perpetually repeated by the Komanists, 
and no doubt Hadrian believed them, though Luther did 
not trouble himself much about such personal attacks, but 
in his letters to Spalatin, simply called the Pope an ass. 



FURTHER WORK OF REFORMATION. 287 

Hadrian also, like so many Komish Churchmen after him, 
was extremely zealous to impress upon princes that he who 
despises the sacred decrees and the 'heads of the Church, 
would cease to respect a temporal throne. 

But the Diet which assembled fit Nuremberg in the 
winter of 1522-23, replied to the demands of the Pope 
by renewing the old grievances of the German nation, 
and insisting on a free Christian Council, to be held in 
Germany. 

Nor did even an unfortunate military enterprise, under- 
taken at this time against the Archbishop of Treves by 
Sickingen, who, while fighting for his own power and the 
interests of the German nobles, announced his wish also to 
break road for the Gospel, produce those disastrous results 
for the evangelical cause in Germany which its enemies had 
anticipated and hoped for. Sickingen, indeed, after being 
defeated by the superior forces of the allied princes, died 
of the wounds he received, but it was as clear as noonday 
that Frederick the Wise and his evangelical theologians had 
had nothing to do with his act of violence. Luther, on 
hearing of Sickingen' s enterprise, remarked that it would 
be ' a very bad business,' and added, on learning the issue, 
' God is a just, but a marvellous judge.' 

The next meeting of the Diet, from whom, after Hadrian's 
early death, his successor, Clement VII. — another modern 
Pope of Leo's way of thinking — demanded anew the execu- 
tion of the Edict of Worms, resulted in the imperial decree 
of April 18, 1524. By this, the states of the Empire agreed 
to execute that edict ' as far as possible,' but stipulated that 
the Lutheran and the other new doctrines should first be 
' examined with the utmost diligence,' and, together with 
the grievances presented by the princes against the Pope 
and the hierarchy, should be made the subject of a repre- 
sentation to the Council now demanded. But the inconsis- 
tency that lurked in this decree caught Luther's eye and 
aroused his suspicion. It was scandalous, he declared in a 



288 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

paper upon it, that the Emperor and the princes should 
issue ' contradictory orders.' They were going to deal 
with him according t'o the Edict of Worms, and proclaim 
him a condemned man, and persecute him, and at the same 
moment wait to decide what was good or bad in his doc- 
trines. But the decree was, in fact, a subterfuge, by which 
they resigned the idea of executing that edict. The Lord's 
Supper could be celebrated at Nuremberg in the new way 
before the eyes of the whole Diet. Well might Frederick 
the Wise hope that men would still, at least in Germany, 
come gradually to agree in peace about the truth contained 
in Luther's preaching. 

The absent Emperor, indeed, remained insensible to all 
such influences. In the Netherlands strict penal laws were 
in force. In a letter addressed to the German Empire he 
condemned the decree of Nuremberg, and, like Hadrian, 
compared Luther to Mahomet. Further, a minority of the 
German princes, including, in particular, Ferdinand of 
Austria, and the Dukes William and Louis of Bavaria, 
entered into a league at Katisbon to execute the Edict of 
Worms, while agreeing to certain reforms in the Church, 
according to a Papal scheme proposed by his nuncio Cam- 
peggio. They too began to persecute and punish the 
heretics. 

Thus, then, the seed sown by Luther began to germinate 
throughout the whole of Germany. The number of Lutheran 
preachers increased, and requests were made in many places 
for their services. Even Cochlaeus had to confess that, how- 
ever bad were their ultimate objects, they showed a remark- 
able unselfishness and industry in their calling, and that they 
avoided even the appearance of pushing themselves forward 
in an irregular and arbitrary manner, waiting rather for their 
appointment in due course by the nobles or the various 
congregations. Among the treatises and other writings on 
ecclesiastical and religious questions which inundated Ger- 
many at that time, at least ten were written on the Lutheran, 



FURTHER WORK OF REFORMATION. 2S9 

to one on the Komish side. The complaint was. that there 
were not more numerous and better qualified printers for 
the work. 

Among the nobles who espoused the cause of Luther, 
the support of Albert of Mansfeld, one of the Counts of 
Luther's native place, was particularly grateful. It was 
mainly by the nobles that the movement was represented 
in Austria. 

But the gospel gained most ground in German towns, 
especially among the burgher class in the free cities of the 
Empire. Preachers were invited hither, where none already 
existed, and the mass Was publicly abolished. This took 
place during 1523 and 1524 at Magdeburg, Frankfort-on- 
the-Main, Schwabish Hall, Nuremberg, Ulm, Strasburg, 
Breslau, and Bremen. On Saxon territory also, Lutheran 
congregations were formed in various towns, such as Zwic- 
kau, Altenburg, and Eisenach. In many cases Luther's 
personal friends took part in the movement, and thus 
cemented more closely their friendship with the Keformer. 
He had already some trusted fellow-labourers at Nuremberg. 
At Magdeburg his friend Amsdorf was pastor. Hess, the 
first evangelical pastor of Breslau, had formed some years 
earlier a warm friendship with him and Melancthon. Link, 
his old friend, and the successor of Staupitz as Vicar-General 
of the Augustines, held office as a preacher at Altenburg, 
whence he was recalled, for the same purpose, in 1525, 
to Nuremberg, his former place of residence. Wherever 
Luther heard of evangelical communities who seemed to 
need especial help for their strengthening or consolation 
under trouble, he addressed to them letters, which were after- 
wards circulated in print. These were sent, for instance, to 
Esslingen, Augsburg, Worms ; also to his ' beloved friends 
in Christ ' at Wittenberg, who had been harassed by the 
Komanists, and whose cause he pleaded to the Archbishop 
Albert. With particular joy he sen. greetings to the i chosen 
and dear friends in God' in the distant towns of Biga, 

u 



290 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

Reval, and Dorpat ; and he sent them also an exposition 
of the 127th Psalm. 

The Word, rejected and condemned as it had been by 
bishops and priests in Germany, met with singular success 
beyond the eastern boundary of the Empire, among the 
Order of Teutonic Knights in Prussia. The Grand Master 
of the Order, Albert of Brandenburg, brother of the Elector 
of Brandenburg, and cousin of Albert, the Archbishop and 
Cardinal, had kept up communication with Luther, both 
orally and by letter, and had been advised by him and 
Melancthon to make himself familiar with the gospel and 
the principles of the Evangelical Church. And, above all, 
there were here two bishops who espoused the new teaching, 
and who were anxious to tend the flocks committed to their 
charge as true evangelical bishops or overseers, in the 
sense insisted on by Luther, and particularly to minister to 
the Word by preaching and by the care of souls. These 
were George of Polenz, Bishop of Samland since 1523, and 
Erhard of Queiss, Bishop of Pomerania since 1524. The 
members of the Order, almost without exception, were on 
their side : they resolved to establish a temporal princedom 
in Prussia and to renounce their vows of ' false chastity and 
spirituality.' The King of Poland, under whose suzerainty 
the country had long been, solemnly invested the hitherto 
Grand Master on April 10, 1525, as hereditary Duke of 
Prussia. Thus Prussia became the first territory that 
collectively embraced the Reformation, whilst as yet, even 
in the Electorate of Saxony, no general measures had been 
taken in its support. It became, in short, the first Protestant 
country. Luther wrote to the new Duke : ' I am greatly 
rejoiced that Almighty God has so graciously and wondrously 
helped your princely Grace to attain such an eminent 
position, and further my wish is that the same merciful 
God may continue His blessing to your Grace through life, 
for the benefit and godly welfare of the whole country.' 
And to the Archbishop Albert he held the new Duke up as 



FURTHER WORK OF REFORMATION. 291 

a shining example, in saying of him, ' How graciously has God 
sent such a change, as, ten years ago, could not have been 
hoped for or believed in, even had ten Isaiahs and Pauls an- 
nounced it. But because he gave room and honour to the 
gospel, the gospel in return has given him far more room 
and honour — more than he could have dared to wish for.' 

The gospel now received its first testimony in blood. 
With joyful confidence Luther beheld what God had done, 
but could ...not refrain from lamenting, with sorrowful 
humility, that he himself had not been found worthy of 
martyrdom. In the Imperial hereditary lands, where for 
some years missionaries, chiefly members of Luther's own 
Augustine Order, had been actively labouring in the strength 
of the convictions derived from Wittenberg, two young 
Augustine monks, Henry Voes and John Esch, were publicly 
burnt, on July 1, 1523, as heretics. Luther thereupon 
addressed a letter to ' the beloved Christians in Holland, 
Brabant, and Flanders,' praising God for His wondrous 
light, that He had caused again to dawn. He spoke out 
even stronger in some verses in which he celebrated the 
young martyrs ; they were published no doubt originally as 
a broadsheet : 

A new song will we raise to Him 

Who ruleth, God our Lord ; 

And we will sing what God hath done, 

In honour of His Word. 

At Brussels in the Netherlands, 

It was through two young lads, 

He hath made known His Wonders, &c. 

They conclude as follows : — 

So let us thank our God to see 

His Word returned at last. 

The Summer now is at the door, 

The Winter is forepast, 

The tender flowerets bloom anew, 

n >> 



292 EXILE, RETURN, AXD MARRIAGE. 

And He, who hath begun, 

Will give His work a happy end. 



He was, later on, deeply grieved by the death of his 
brother- Augustine and friend Henry Moller of Ziitphen, 
who, after having been forced to fly from the Netherlands, 
had begun a blessed work at Bremen, and was now murdered 
in the most brutal manner on December 11, 1524, by a 
mob instigated by monks, near Meldorf, whither he had 
gone in response to an invitation from some of his com- 
panions in the faith. Luther informed his Christian 
brethren in a circular of the end of this ' blessed brother ' 
and * Evangelist.' He mentions, with him, the two martyrs 
of Brussels, as well as other disciples of the new doctrine ; 
one Caspar Tauber, who was executed at Vienna, a book- 
seller named Georg, who was burnt at Pesth, and one who 
had been recently burnt at Prague, ' These and such as 
these,' he adds, ' are they whose blood will drown the 
popedom, together with its god, the devil.' 

With regard to his work of reformation, which had now 
spread so widely and found so many coadjutors, Luther 
at present thought as little about the outward constitution 
of a new Church as he had thought about any outward 
organisation of the war itself, or an external alliance of his 
adherents, or of a cleverly devised propaganda. Just as 
here the simple Word was to achieve the victory, so his whole 
efforts were devoted solely to restoring to the congregations 
the possession and enjoyment of that Word in all its purity, 
that they might gather round it, and be thereby further 
edified, sustained, and guided. 

Wherever this privilege was denied to Christians, Luther 
claimed for them the right, by virtue of their universal 
priesthood, to ordain a priest for themselves, and to reject 
the ensnaring deceits of mere human doctrine. He declared 
himself to this effect, in a treatise written in 1523, and 
intended in the first instance for the Bohemians — that 



FURTHER WORK OF REFORMATION. 293 

is to say, for the so-called Utraquists who were then 
the leading party in Bohemia. These sectaries, whose 
only ground of estrangement from Eome was the question 
of administering the cup to the laity, and who had never 
thought of separating themselves from the so-called Apos- 
tolical succession of the episcopate in the Catholic Church, 
Luther then hoped, albeit in vain, to win over to a genuine 
evangelical belief and practice of religion. In this treatise 
he went a step beyond the election of pastors by their 
congregations, by maintaining that a whole district, com- 
posed of such evangelical communities, might appoint 
their own overseer, who should exercise control over them, 
until the final establishment of a supreme bishopric, of an 
evangelical character, for the entire national Church. But 
of any such ecclesiastical edifice for Germany, wholly 
absorbed as he was in her immediate needs, he had not 
yet said a word. Congregations of such a kind, and suit- 
able for such a purpose, could only be created by preaching 
the Word ; nor had Luther yet abandoned the hope that 
the existing German episcopate, as already had been the 
case in Prussia, would accept an evangelical reconstruction 
on a much larger scale. With regard to individual congre- 
gations, moreover, it was the opinion of Luther and his 
friends that, where the local magistrates and patrons of 
the Church were inclined to the gospel, the appointment of 
pastors might be made by them in a regular way. A 
separation of civil communities, each represented by their 
own magistrate, from the ecclesiastical or religious units, 
was an idea wholly foreign to that time. 

That the word of God should be preached to the various 
congregations in a pure and earnest manner, that those 
congregations themselves should be entrusted with the 
work, should make it their own, and, in reliance thereon, 
should lift up their hearts to God with prayer, supplication, 
and thanksgiving, —this was the fixed object which Luther 
held in view in all the regulations which he made at 



294 fZXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

Wittenberg, and wished to institute in other places. In this 
spirit he advanced cautiously and by degrees in the changes 
introduced in public worship, — changes which, as he admits, 
he had commenced with fear and hesitation. ' That the 
Word itself,' he says, ' should advance mightily among 
Christians, is shown by the whole of Scripture, and Christ 
Himself says (Luke x.) that "one thing is needful," namely, 
that Mary should sit at the feet of Christ, and hear His 
Word daily. His Word endures for ever, and all else must 
melt away before it, however much Martha may have to 
do.' He points out as one of the great abuses of the old 
system of worship, that the people had to keep silence 
about the Word, while all the time they had to accept un- 
christian fables and falsehoods in what was read, and 
sung, and preached in the churches, and to perform public 
worship as a work which should entitle them to the grace 
of God. He now set vigorously about separating the mere 
furniture of worship. As to the Word itself, on the contrary, 
he was anxious to have it preached to the congregation, 
wherever possible, every Sunday morning and evening, and 
on week-days, at least to the students and others, who desired 
to hear it : this was actually done at Wittenberg. Innova- 
tions, not apparently required by his principles, he shunned 
himself, and warned others to do so likewise. Nor was he 
less diligent to guard against the danger of having the 
new forms of worship, now practised at Wittenberg, made 
into a law for all evangelical brethren without distinction. 
He gave an account and estimate of them in the form of a 
letter to his friend Hausmann, the priest at Zwickau, ' con- 
juring ' his readers ' from his very heart, for Christ's sake,' 
that if anyone saw plainly a better way in these matters, 
he should make it known. No one, he declared, durst con- 
demn or despise different forms practised by others. Out- 
ward customs and ceremonies were, indeed, indispensable, but 
they served as little to commend us to God, as meat or drink 
(1 Cor. viii. 8) served to make us well pleasing before Him. 



FURTHER WORK OF REFORMATION. 295 

In order to enable the congregations themselves to take 
an active part in the service, he now longed for genuine 
Church hymns, that is to say, songs composed in the noble 
popular language, verse, and melody. He invited friends to 
paraphrase the Psalms for this purpose ; he had not suffi- 
cient confidence in himself for the work. And yet he was 
the first to attempt it. With fresh impulse and with the 
exuberance of true poetical genius, his verses on the Brussels 
martyrs had flowed forth spontaneously from his inmost 
soul. They were the first, so far as we know, that Luther 
had ever written, though he was now forty years of age. 
"With the same poetic impulse he composed, probably shortly 
after, a hymn in praise of the ' highest blessing ' that God 
had shown towards us in the sacrifice of His beloved Son. 

Eejoice ye now, dear Christians all, 

And let us leap for joy, 

And dare with trustful, loving hearts, 

Our praises to employ, 

And sing what God hath shown to man, 

His sweet and wondrous deed, 

And tell how dearly He hath won. etc. 



The full tone of a powerful, fresh, often uncouth, but very 
tender popular ballad no other writer of the time displayed 
like Luther. And whilst seeking to compose or re-arrange 
hymns for congregational use in church, he now busied 
himself with the Psalter, paraphrasing its contents in an 
evangelical spirit and in German metre. 

Thus now, early in 1524, there appeared at Wittenberg 
the first German hymn-book, consisting at first, of only eight 
hymns, about half of them, such as that beginning Nun 
freut euch, being original compositions of Luther, and three 
others adapted from the Psalms. In the course of the same 
year he brought out a further collection of twenty hymns, 
written by himself for the evangelical congregation there : 
aanong these is the one on the Brussels martyrs. It was, in 



296 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

fact, the year in which German hynmody was born 
Luther soon found the coadjutors he had wished for. 

These twenty-four hymns by Luther were followed in 
after years by only twelve more from his own pen, among 
the latter being his grand hymn, Eiri feste Burg ist wiser 
Gott, written probably in 1527. Of these later compositions, 
comparatively few expressed entirely his own ideas ; most 
of them had reference to subjects already in the possession 
and use of the Christian world, and of German Christians 
in particular ; that is to say, some referred to the Psalms 
and other portions of the Bible, others to parts of the 
Catechism, others again to short German ballads, sung by 
the people, and even to old Latin hymns. In all of them 
he was governed by a strict regard to what was both purely 
evangelical, and also suitable for the common worship of 
God. And yet they differ widely, one from another, in the 
poetical form and manner in which he now gives utterance 
to the longings of the heart for God, now seeks to clothe in 
verse suited for congregational singing words of belief and 
doctrine, now keeps closely to his immediate subject, now 
vents his emotions freely in Christian sentiments and 
poetical form, as for example in Ein' feste Burg, the most 
sublime and powerful production of them all. 

The new hymns went forth in town and country, in 
churches and homes, throughout the land. Often, far more 
than any sermons could have done, they brought home to 
ears and hearts the Word of evangelical truth. They 
became weapons of war, as well as means of edification and 
comfort. 

In his preface to a small collection of songs, which 
Luther had published in the same year, he remarks : ' I am 
not of opinion that the gospel should be employed to strike 
down and destroy all the arts, as certain high ecclesiastics 
would have it. I would rather tlmt all the arts, and 
especially music, should be employed in the service of Him 
who has created them and given them to man. 5 What he say? 



FURTHER WORK OF REFORMATION. 297 

here about music and poetry, he applied equally to all 
departments of knowledge. He saw art and learning now 
menaced by wrong-minded enthusiasts. For this reason he 
was particularly anxious that they should be cultivated in 
the schools. 

With great zeal he directed his counsels to the general 
duty of caring for the good education and instruction of 
the young, as indeed he had done some time before in his 
address to the German Nobility. These, above all, he said, 
must be rescued from the clutches of Satan. He had again 
in his mind schools for girls. Thus in 1523 he recom- 
mended the conversion of the cloisters of the Mendicant 
Orders into schools ' for boys and girls.' The same advice 
was offered by Eberlin, already mentioned, who was then 
living at Wittenberg, and who made the suggestion to the 
magistrates of Ulm. 

But Luther's chief advice was directed to the require- 
ments of the Church and the State, or ' temporal govern- 
ment,' which assuredly were then in need of educated and 
well-cultured servants. For the training here required, the 
ancient languages, Latin and Greek, were indispensable, and 
for the ministers of the Church, Greek and Hebrew in par- 
ticular, as the languages in which the Word of God was 
originally conveyed to man. ' Languages,' he says, ' are 
the sheaths which enclose the sword of the Spirit, the 
shrine in which this treasure is carried, the vessel which 
contains this drink.' He insisted further on the study of 
history, and especially of that of Germany. It was a 
matter of regret to him that so little had been done towards 
writing the history of Germany, whilst the Greeks, the 
Eomans, and the Hebrews had compiled theirs with such 
industry. ' ! how many good histories and sayings,' he 
remarked, ' we ought to have in our possession, of all that 
has been done and said in different parts of Germany, and 
of which we know nothing. That is why, in other coun- 
tries, people know nothing about us Germans, and all 



298 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

the world calls us German beasts, who can do nothing but 
fight, and guzzle, and drink.' Such were his opinions, as 
given in 1524, in a public letter ' To the Councillors of 
all the States of Germany; an appeal to institute and 
maintain Christian schools.' 

The enthusiasm which had recently inspired young men of 
talent and ambition to study and imitate the ancient classics, 
and had banded together the leading teachers of Humanism, 
very quickly died away. The universities everywhere were 
less frequented. Enemies of Luther ascribed this to the 
influence of his doctrines, though matters were little better 
where his doctrines were repudiated. It is not, indeed, 
surprising that the Humanist movement, with its regard for 
formal culture and aesthetic enjoyment, and its aristocracy 
of intellect, should retire perforce before the supreme 
struggle, involving the highest issues and interests of life, 
which was now being waged by the German people and the 
Church. A further cause of this decline of academical 
studies was to be found, no doubt, in the vigorous, and some- 
what giddy bound taken by trade and commerce in those 
days of increased communication and extensive geographical 
discovery, and in the striving after material gain and enjoy- 
ment, which seemed to find satisfaction in other ways more 
easily and rapidly than by learned industry and the pursuit of 
culture. It was from these quarters that came the complaints 
against the great merchants' houses, the usury, the rise in 
prices, the luxury and extravagance of the age, — complaints 
which were re-echoed alike by the friends and foes of the Ee- 
formation. The Reformers themselves fully recognised the 
thanks they owed to those Humanistic studies, and their 
permanent value for Church and State. In the new church 
regulations introduced in the towns and districts which 
accepted the evangelical teaching, the school system then 
played a prominent part. Nuremberg, some years after, was 
among the most active to establish a good high school, 
Luther himself went in April 1525 with Melancthon to his 



FURTHER WORK OF REFORMATION. 299 

native place Eisleben, to assist in promoting a school, 
founded there by Count Albert of Mansfeld : his friend 
Agricola was the head master. 

Thus we see that the work of planting and building 
occupied Luther at this time more than the contest with his 
old opponents. Well might he, as he says in his hymn, 
rejoice to see the spring-tide and the flowers, and hope for 
a rich summer. 

On the other hand, not only did the adherents of the 
old system knit their ranks together more closely, and, like 
the confederates of Eatisbon in 1524, profess their desire 
to do something at least to satisfy the general complaint of 
the corruption of the Church; but men even, who from 
their undeniably deep and earnest striving for religion, 
seemed originally called to take part in the work and war, 
now separated themselves from Luther and his associates, 
not venturing to break free from the bonds of old ecclesias- 
tical tradition. Still more was this the case with men of 
Humanistic culture, whose temporary alliance with Luther 
had been dictated more by the interest they felt in the 
arts and letters threatened by the old monastic spirit, and 
by the open scandal caused by the outrageous abuses of the 
clergy and monachism, than by any sympathy with his 
religious principles and ideas. And to those who wavered 
in so momentous a decision, and shrank back from it and 
the contests it involved, there was plenty in what they 
observed among Luther's adherents, to give them occasion 
for still further reflection. It was not to be denied that, 
sharply as Luther had reproved the conduct of the Witten- 
berg innovators, the new preaching gave rise among excited 
multitudes, in many places, to disturbance, disorder, and 
acts of violence against obstinate monks and priests ; and all 
this was held up as a proof of what the consequences must 
be of a general dissolution of religious ties. The desertion 
of their convents by monks and nuns, ostensibly on the 
ground of their newly-proclaimed liberty, but in reality, for 



3 oo EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

the most part, as was alleged against them by the Catholics, 
for the sake of carnal freedom, was denounced with no small 
severity by Luther himself ; but, in so doing, he recalled to 
mind the fact, that equally low interests had led them into 
the convents, and that the cloisters also, after their fashion, 
indulged in the ' worship of the belly.' Luther was just as 
indignant that the great majority of those who refused to be 
robbed any longer of their money and goods at the demand 
and by the deceits of the Papal Church, now withheld them 
both from serving the objects of Christian love and benevo- 
lence, which they were all the more called on to promote. 
The enemies of the new doctrine began already to charge 
against it that ihe faith, which was supposed to make men 
so blessed, bore so little good fruit. Lastly, there were many 
honest-minded men, and many, also, who looked about for an 
excuse for abstaining from the battle, whom Luther's per- 
sonal participation in the din and clamour of the fray served 
to scandalise, if not to alienate from his cause. Thus among 
those who had formerly been united by a common endea- 
vour to improve the condition of the Church and repel the 
tyranny of Kome, a crisis had now begun. 

Of all who drew back from Luther's work of reformation, 
none had been more intimately attached to him than his 
spiritual father, Staupitz. And this intimacy he retained 
as Abbot of Salzburg. In his view, nothing of all the ex- 
ternal matters to which the Eeformation was directed, 
seemed so important as to warrant the endangerment of re- 
ligious concord and unity in the Church. Luther expressed 
to him the sorrow he felt at his estrangement, while renew- 
ing, at the same time, his assurance of unalterable affection 
and gratitude. Staupitz himself felt unhappy in his 
attitude and position. But even as abbot, and in the 
proximity of the Archbishop of Salzburg, a man of very 
different views and temperament to himself, he remained 
true to his doctrine of Faith, as being the only means of 
salvation and the root of all goodness. And the very 



FURTHER WORK OF REFORMATION. 301 

last year of his life, in a letter to Luther, recommending to 
him a young theologian who was about to further his 
education at Wittenberg, he assured him of his unchanging 
love, ' passing the love of women ' (2 Sam. i. 26), and grate- 
fully acknowledged how his beloved Martin had first led him 
away ' to the living pastures from the husks for the pigs.' 
Luther gave a friendly welcome to the young man recom- 
mended to his care, and assisted him in gaining the desired 
degree of Master of Philosophy. This is the last that we 
hear of the intercourse between these two friends. On 
December 28, 1524, Staupitz died from a fit of apoplexy. 

The earlier acquaintance between the Keformer and the 
great Humanist, Erasmus, had now developed into an 
irreconcilable enmhVy. The latter had long been unable to 
refrain from venting, in private and public utterances, his 
dissatisfaction and bitterness at the storm aroused by 
Luther, which was distracting the Church and disturbing- 
quiet study. Patrons of his in high places — above all, King- 
Henry VIII. of England— urged him to take up the cause 
of the Church against Luther in a pamphlet ; and, difficult 
as he felt it to take a prominent part in such a contest, he 
was the less able to decline their overtures, since other 
Churchmen were reproaching him with having furthered by 
his earlier writings the pernicious movement. He chose a 
subject which would enable him, at any rate, while attacking 
Luther, to represent his own personal convictions, and to 
reckon on the concurrence not only of Eomish zealots but 
also of a number of his Humanist friends, and even many 
men of deeply moral and religious disposition. Luther, it 
will be remembered, had told him plainly from the first that 
he knew too little of the grace of God, which alone could 
give salvation to sinners, and strength and ability to the 
good. Erasmus now retorted by his diatribe ' On Free 
Will,' by virtue whereof, he said, man was able and was 
bound to procure his own blessing and final happiness. 

Luther, on perusing this treatise, in September 1524, 



302 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

was struck with the feebleness of its contents. So far, 
indeed, from denning the operation of the human will, 
Erasmus floated vaguely about in loose and incoherent pro- 
positions, evidently not from want of extreme care and 
circumspection, but from the fact that, in this province of 
antiquarian research, he failed in the necessary acuteness 
and depth of observation and thought. He declared him- 
self ready to yield obedience to all decisions of the Church, 
but without expressing any opinion as to the real infallibility 
of an ecclesiastical tribunal. Throughout his whole treatise, 
however, there were personal thrusts at his enemy. 

Luther, as he said, only wished to 'answer this diatribe 
out of regard to the position enjoyed by its author, and, 
from his sheer aversion to the book, for a long while post- 
poned his reply. "We shall see moreover, very shortly, what 
other pressing duties and events engrossed his attention for 
some time after. It was not until a year had elapsed, that 
his reply appeared, entitled ' On the Bondage of the Will.' 
Herein he pushes the propositions to which Erasmus took 
exception to their logical conclusion. Free Will, as it is 
called, has always been subject to the supremacy of a higher 
Power ; with unredeemed sinners to the power of the devil ; 
with the redeemed, to the saving, sanctifying, and shelter- 
ing Hand of God. For. the latter, salvation is assured by 
His Almighty and grace-conferring Will. The fact that in 
other sinners no such conversion to God and to a redeem- 
ing faith in His Word is effected, can only be ascribed to 
the inscrutable Will of God Himself, nor durst man dispute 
thereon with his Maker. Luther in this went further than 
did afterwards the Evangelical Church that bears his name. 
And even he, later on, abstained himself and warned others 
to abstain from discussing such Divine mysteries and 
questions connected with them. But as for Erasmus, he 
never ceased to regard him as one who, from his superficial 
worldliness, was blind to the highest truth of salvation 

In respect to the battle against Catholic Churchdom and 



FURTHER WORK OF REFORMATION. 30* 

dogma, the controversy between Luther and Erasmus pre- 
sents no new issue or further development. But in company 
with their old master, other Humanists also, the leading 
champions of the general culture of the age, dissociated 
themselves from Luther, and returned, as his enemies, to 
their allegiance to the traditional system of the Church. 
Next to Erasmus, the most important of these men was 
Pirkheimer of Nuremberg, to whom we have already 
referred 



5«4 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE, 



CHAPTEE V. 

THE REFORMER AGAINST THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS 
UP TO 1525. 

In his new as in his old contests, Luther's experiences 
remained such as he described them to Hartmuth of 
Kronberg, on his return to Wittenberg. ' x\ll my enemies, 
near as they have reached me, have not hit me as hard as 
I have now been hit by our own people.' 

At first, indeed, Carlstadt kept silent, and continued 
quietly, till Easter 1523, his lectures at the university. 
But inwardly he was inclined to a mysticism resembling 
that of the Zwickau fanatics, and imbibed, like theirs, 
from mediaeval writings ; and he too, soon turned, with 
these views, to new and practical projects of reform. 

He now began to unfold in writing his ideas of a true 
union of the soul with God. He too explained how the 
souls of all creatures should empty themselves, so to speak, 
and prepare themselves in absolute passiveness, in ' in- 
action and lassitude,' for a glorified state. His profession 
of learning, and his academical and clerical dignities he 
resigned, as ministering to vanity. He bought a small 
property near "Wittenberg, and repaired thither to live as a 
layman and peasant. He wore a peasant's coat, and mixed 
with the other peasants as ' Neighbour Andrew.' Luther 
saw him there, standing with bare feet amid heaps of 
manure, and loading it on a cart. 

He found a place for the exercise of his new work in 
the church at Orlamiinde on the Saale, above Jena. This 
parish, like several others, had been incorporated with the 



THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 305 

university at Wittenberg, and its revenues formed part of 
its endowment, being specially attached to the archdeaconry 
of the Convent Church, which was united with Carlstadt's 
professorship. The living there, with most of its emolu- 
ments, had passed accordingly to Carlstadt, but the office 
of pastor could only be performed by vicars, as they were 
called, regularly nominated, and appointed by the Elector. 
Carlstadt now took advantage of a vacancy in the office, to 
go on his own authority as pastor to Orlamiinde, without 
wishing to resign his appointment and its pay at Witten- 
berg. By his preaching and personal influence he soon 
won over the local congregation to his side, and ended by 
gaining as great an influence here as he had done at 
Wittenberg. Here also the images were abolished and 
destroyed, crucifixes and other representations of Christ 
no less than images of the saints. Carlstadt now openly 
declared that no respect was to be paid to any local 
authority, nor any regard to other congregations ; they 
were to execute freely the commands of God, and whatever 
was contrary to God, they were to cast down and hew to 
pieces. And in interpreting and applying these commands 
of God he went to more extravagant lengths than ever. 
Must not the letter of the Old Testament be the law for 
other things as well as images ? Acting on this idea, he 
demanded that Sunday should be observed with rest in all 
the Mosaic rigour of the term ; this rest he identified with 
that 'inaction,' which formed his idea of true union with 
God. He proceeded then to advocate polygamy, as per- 
mitted to the Jews in the Old Testament : he actually 
advised an inhabitant of Orlamiinde to take a second wife, 
in addition to the one then living. He began, at the same 
time, to dispute the real presence of the Body and Blood of 
Christ in the Sacrament — a doctrine which Luther stead- 
fastly insisted on in his contest with the Catholic doctrine 
of Transubstantiation. By an extraordinary perversion, as 
is evident at a glance, of the meaning of Christ's words of 

x 



306 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

institution, he maintained that when our Saviour said 
' This is My Body,' — alluding, of course, to the bread which 
He was then distributing, He was not referring to the bread 
at all, but only to His own body, as He stood there. 

The inhabitants of the neighbouring town of Kahla 
were seized with the same spirit. These mystical ideas 
and phrases assumed strange forms of expression among 
the common people, who jumbled together in wild confusion 
the supernatural and the material. Carlstadt kept up also 
a secret correspondence with Munzer. 

The question of the authority of the Old Testament 
soon took a wider range. It seemed to be one of the 
authority of Scripture in general, which was contended 
for against the Papists. If the authority of God's Word in 
the Old Testament applied to the whole domain of civil 
life, should it not equally apply, as against particular 
regulations established by civil society ? On these prin- 
ciples, for example, all taking of interest, as well as usury, 
was declared to be forbidden, just as it had been forbidden 
to God's people of old. A restoration of the Mosaic year 
of Jubilee was even talked of, when after fifty years all land 
which had passed into other hands should revert to its 
original owners. With eagerness the people took up these 
new ideas of social reform, so specious and so full of 
promises. The evangelical and earnest preacher, Strauss 
at Eisenach, worked zealously with word and pen in this 
direction. Even a court-preacher of Duke John, Wolfgang 
Stein at Weimar, espoused the movement. 

Meanwhile Munzer came again to Central Germany. 
He had succeeded, at Easter 1523, in obtaining the office of 
pastor at Allstedt, a small town in a lateral valley of the 
Unstrut. In him, more than in any other, the spirit of 
the Zwickau prophets fermented with full force, and was 
preparing for a violent outburst. Alone, in the room of a 
church tower, he held secret intercourse with his God, and 
boasted of his answers and revelations. He affected the 



THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 307 

appearance and demeanour of a man whose soul was 
absorbed in tranquillity, devoid of all finite ideas or aspira- 
tions, and open and free to receive God's Spirit and inner 
Word. More violently than even the champions of Catholic 
asceticism, he reproached Luther for leading a comfortable, 
carnal life But his whole energies were directed to estab- 
lishing a Kingdom of the Saints, — an external one, with ex- 
ternal power and splendour. His preaching dwelt incessantly 
on the duty of destroying and killing the ungodly, and 
especially all tyrants. He wished to see a practical appli- 
cation given to the words of the Mosaic dispensation, 
commanding God's people to destroy the heathen nations 
from out of the promised land, to overthrow their altars, 
and burn their graven images with fire. Community of 
property was to be a particular institution of the Kingdom 
of God, the property being distributed to each man 
according to his need : whatever prince or lord refused 
to do this, was to be hanged or beheaded. Meanwhile, 
Miinzer sought by means of secret emissaries in all direc- 
tions to enlist the saints into a secret confederacy. His 
chief associate was the former monk, Pfeifer at Miihlhausen, 
not far from Allstedt. The Orlamiindians, however, whom 
also he endeavoured to seduce to his policy of violence, 
would have nothing to say to such overtures. 

The Elector Frederick even now came only tardily to 
the resolve, to interpose, in these ecclesiastical matters and 
disputes, his authority as sovereign, nor did Luther himself 
desire his intervention so long as the struggle was one of 
minds about the truth. Duke John had been strongly 
influenced by the ideas of his court-preacher. The princes 
still hoped to be able to restore peace between Luther and 
his colleague, Carlstadt, who, with all his misty projects, 
was still of importance as a theologian. 

Carlstadt consented, indeed, at Easter in 1524, to resume 
quietly his duties at Wittenberg university. But he soon 

x2 



308 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

returned to Orlamiinde, to re-assert his position there as 
head and reformer of the Church. 

With regard to the question of Mosaic and civil law, 
Luther was now invited by John Frederick, the son of Duke 
John, to express his opinion. It is easy to conceive how 
this question might present, even to upright and calm- 
judging adherents of the evangelical preaching, considera- 
tions of difficulty and much inward doubt. It had cropped 
up as a novelty, and, as it seemed, in necessary connection 
with this preaching : moreover, on its answer depended a 
revolution of all ordinances of State and society, in accord- 
ance with the command of God. 

Luther's views on this subject, however, were perfectly 
clear, and he expressed himself accordingly. In his opinion, 
the answer had been given by the keynote of evangelical 
teaching. It lay in the distinction between spiritual and 
temporal government, the essential features of which he 
had already explained in 1523 in his treatise ' On the Secular 
Power.' The life of the soul in God, its reconciliation and 
redemption, its relations and duty to God and fellow-man 
in faith and love— these are the subjects dealt with in the 
gospel message of salvation, or the biblical revelation in its 
completeness. God has left to the practical understanding 
and needs of man, and to the historical development of 
peoples and states under His overruling providence, the 
arrangement of forms of law for social life, without the 
necessity of any special revelation for that purpose. It is 
the duty of the secular power to administer the existing 
laws, and to make new ones in a proper and legal manner, 
according as they may think fit. That God prescribed to 
the people of Israel external, civil ordinances by the mouth 
of Moses, was part of His scheme of education. Christians 
are not bound by these ordinances, — no more, indeed, than 
is their inner life and right conduct made conditional on 
outward rules and forms. Moral commands alone belong 
to that part of the Mosaic law whereof the sanction is 



THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 309 

eternal ; and to the fulfilment of these commands, written, 
as St. Paul says, from the beginning on the hearts of men, 
the Spirit of God now urges His redeemed people. No doubt 
the law of Moses, in regard to civil life, might contain much 
that would be useful for other peoples also in that respect. 
But it* would, in that case, be the business of the powers 
that be to examine and borrow from it, just as Germany 
borrowed her civil law from the Eomans. 

Such, briefly stated, are the views which Luther enun- 
ciated with clearness and consistency, in his writings and 
sermons. He guards the civil power as jealously now against 
an irregular assertion of religious principles and biblical 
authority, as he had formerly done against the aggressions 
of an ecclesiastical hierarchy, while at the same time he 
defends the religious life of Christians against the dangers 
and afflictions which that hierarchy threatened. Thus he 
answered the prince, on June 18, 1524, to this effect : 
Temporal laws are something external, like eating and 
drinking, house and clothing. At present the laws of the 
Empire have to be maintained, and faith and love can co- 
exist with them very^well. If ever the zealots of the Mosaic 
law become Emperors, and govern the world as their own, 
they may choose, if they please, the law of Moses; but 
Christians at all times are bound to support the law which 
the civil authority imposes. 

In Miinzer Luther looked for a near outbreak of the 
Evil Spirit. He alluded to him in his letter of June 18, as the 
' Satan of Allstedt,' adding that he thought he was not yet 
quite fledged. He soon heard more about him, namely, 
that ' his Spirit was going to strike out with the fist.' On 
this subject he wrote the next month to the Elector 
Frederick and Duke John, and published his letter. Against 
Miinzer 's mere words — his preaching and his personal re- 
vilements — he was not now concerned to defend himself. 

' Let them boldly preach/ he says, ' what they can 

Let the Spirits rend and tear each other. A few, perhaps, 



310 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

may be seduced ; but that happens in every war. Wherever 
there is a battle and fighting, some one must fall and be 
wounded.' He repeats here, what he had said before, that 
Antichrist should be destroyed ' without hands,' and that 
Christ contended with the Spirit of His Word. But if 
they really meant to strike out with the fist, then Luther 
would have the prince say to them, ' Keep your fists quiet, 
for that is our office, or else leave the country.' 

In August Luther came himself to Weimar, in obedience 
to a wish expressed by the two princes. With the court- 
preacher he had come to a friendly understanding. Munzer 
had just left Allstedt, an official report of his dangerous 
proceedings having been forwarded from there to Weimar, 
whither he was summoned for an examination and inquiry. 
On August 14 Luther wrote from this town to the magistrate 
of Muhlhausen, where Munzer, as he heard, had taken refuge 
and had already mustered a party. He warned the people 
of Muhlhausen to wait at least before receiving Munzer, 
until they had heard * what sort of children he and his 
followers were.' They would not remain long in the dark 
about him. He was a tree, as he had shown at Zwickau 
and Allstedt, which bore no fruit but murder and re- 
bellion. 

From Weimar Luther travelled on to Orlamiinde. On 
August 21 he arrived at Jena, where a preacher named 
Eeinhard was staying with Carlstadt. Luthei here 
preached against the * Spirit of Allstedt,' which destroyed 
images, despised the sacrament, and incited to rebellion. 
Carlstadt, who was present and heard the sermon, waited 
on him afterwards at his lodging, to defend himself against 
these charges. Luther insisted, notwithstanding, that 
Carlstadt was * an associate of the new prophets.' He 
challenged him finally to abandon his intrigues and confute 
him openly in writing, and the heated interview ended by 
Carlstadt promising to do so, and by Luther giving him a 
florin as a pledge and token of the bargain. 



THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 311 

From Jena Luther went through Kahla, where also he 
preached, to Orlamiinde. The people here had been anxious 
for a personal discussion with him, but in writing to him 
for that purpose, had addressed him in words as follows : 
' You despise all those who, by God's command, destroy 
dumb idols, against which you trump up feeble evidence 
out of your own head, and not grounded on Scripture. 
Your venturing thus publicly to slander us, members of 
Christ, shows that you are no member of the real Christ.' 
The discussion he held with them led to no success, and 
he gave up any further attempt to convince them ; for, as 
he said, they burned like a fire, as if they longed to devour 
him. On his departure they pursued him with savage 
shouts of execration. 

Carlstadt, a few weeks later, was deprived of his pro- 
fessorship, and had to leave the country. Luther put in a 
word for the people of Orlamiinde as ' good simple folk,' 
who had been seduced by a stronger will. But against 
Carlstadt's whole conduct and teaching he launched an 
elaborate attack in a pamphlet, published in two parts, at 
the close of 1524 and the beginning of the following year. 
It was entitled ' Against the Celestial Prophets, concerning 
Images and the Sacrament, &c.,' with the motto ' Their 
folly shall be manifest unto all men' (2 Timothy hi. 9). 
For in Carlstadt he sought to expose and combat the same 
spirit that dwelt in the Zwickau prophets and in Miinzer, 
and that threatened to produce still worse results. If 
Carlstadt, like Moses, was right in teaching people to break 
down images, and in calling in for this purpose the aid of 
the disorderly rabble, instead of the proper authorities, then 
the mob had the power and right to execute in like manner 
all the commands of God. And the consequence and sequel 
of this would be, what was soon shown by Miinzer. 'It 
will come to this length,' says Luther, ' that they will have 
to put all ungodly people to death ; for so Moses (Deut. vii.), 
when he told the people to break down the images, com- 



312 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

manded them also to kill without mercy all those who had 
made them in the land of Canaan.' 

The great storm, announced and prepared by the 
' Spirit of Allstedt,' broke loose even sooner than could 
have been expected. 

Miinzer had really appeared at Muhlhausen. The 
town-council, however, were still able to insist on his 
leaving the place, together with his friend Pfeifer. He 
then wandered about for several weeks in the south-west of 
Germany, exciting disturbance wherever he went. But on 
September 13 he returned with Pfeifer to Muhlhausen, 
where he preached in his wonted manner, propounded to 
the people in the streets his doctrines and revelations, and 
attracted the mob to his side, while respectable citizens 
and members of the magistracy left the town from fear of 
the mischief that was threatening. Towards the end of 
February he was offered a regular post as pastor, and soon 
after all the old magistrates were turned out and others 
more favourable to him elected in their place. The mul- 
titude raged against images and convents. The peasants 
from the neighbourhood flocked in, anxious for the general 
equality which was promised them. Luther wrote to a 
friend, ' Miinzer is King and Emperor at Muhlhausen. ' 

Meanwhile, in Southern Germany peasant insurrections 
had broken out in various places since the summer of this 
year. In itself, there was nothing novel in this. Ee- 
peatedly during the latter part of the previous century, the 
poor peasantry had risen and erected their banner, the 
' Shoe of the League ' (Bundschuh), so called from the 
rustic shoes which the insurgents wore. Their grievances 
were the intolerable and ever-growing burdens, laid upon 
them by the lay and clerical magnates, the taxes of all 
kinds squeezed from them by every ingenious device, and 
the feudal service which they were forced to perform. The 
nobles had, in fact, towards the close of the middle ages, 
usurped a much larger exercise of their ancient privileges 



THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 313 

against them, by means partly of a dexterous manipulation 
of the old Koman law, and partly of the ignorance of that 
law which prevailed among their vassals. On the other side, 
complaints were heard at that time of the insolence shown 
by the wealthier peasants ; of the luxury, in which they 
tried to rival their masters ; and of the arrogance and 
defiant demeanour of the peasantry in general. The 
oppression endured by any particular class of the civil 
community does not usually lead to violent disturbances 
and outbreaks, unless and until that class is awakened to a 
higher sense of its own importance and has acquired an 
increase of power. The peasants found, moreover, dis- 
contented spirits like themselves among the lower orders in 
the towns, who were avowed enemies of the upper classes, 
and who complained bitterly of the hardships and oppres- 
sions suffered by small people at the hands of the great 
merchants and commercial companies, — in a word, from 
the power of capital. Furthermore, when once the peasants 
rose in rebellion against their masters, the latter also, in- 
cluding the nobility, showed an inclination here and there 
to favour a general revolution, if only to remedy the de- 
fects of their own position. And, in truth, throughout 
the German Empire at that time there was a general move- 
ment pressing for a readjustment of the relations of the 
various classes to each other and to the Imperial power. 
Ideas of a total reconstruction of society and the State had 
penetrated the mass of the people, to an extent never 
known before. 

. Thus the way was paved, and incentives already supplied 
for a powerful popular movement, apart altogether from 
the question of Church Eeform. And indeed this question 
Luther was anxious, as we have seen, to restrict to the 
domain of spiritual, as distinguished from secular, that is 
to say, political and civil action. It was impossible, how- 
ever, but that the accusations of lying, tyranny, and 
hostility to evangelical truth, now freely levelled against the 



314 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

dominant priesthood and the secular lords who were perse- 
cuting the gospel, should serve to intensify to the utmost the 
prevailing bitterness against external oppression. With the 
same firmness and decision with which Luther condemned 
all disorderly and violent proceedings in support of the 
gospel, he had also long been warning its persecutors of 
the inevitable storm which they would bring upon them- 
selves. Other evangelical preachers, however, as for 
instance, Eberlin and Strauss, mingled with their popular 
preaching all sorts of suggestions of social reform. At last 
men went about among the people, with open or disguised 
activity, whose principles were directly opposed to those 
of Luther, but who proclaimed themselves, nevertheless, 
enthusiasts for the gospel which he had brought again to 
light, or which, as they pretended, they had been the first 
to reveal, together with true evangelical liberty. They 
appealed to God's Word in support of the claims and griev- 
ances of the oppressed classes ; they grasped their weapons 
by virtue of the Divine law. Hence the peculiar ardour 
and energy that marked the insurrection, although the 
enthusiasm, thus kindled, was united with the utmost 
barbarity and licentiousness. Never has Germany been 
threatened with a revolution so vast and violent, or so im- 
measurable in its possible results. On no single man's 
word did so much depend as on that of Luther, the genuine 
man of the people. 

The movement began late in the summer of 1524 in 
the Black Forest and Hegau. After the beginning of the 
next year it continued rapidly to spread, and the different 
groups of insurgents who were fighting here and there, 
combined in a common plan of action. Like a flood the 
movement forced its way eastwards into Austria, westwards 
into Alsatia, northwards into Franconia, and even as far as 
Thuringia. At Eothenburg on the Tauber, Carlstadt had 
prepared die way for it by inciting the people to destroy 
the images. The demands in which the peasants were 



■ZffE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 31 5 

unanimous, were now drawn up in twelve articles. These 
still preserved a very moderate aspect. They claimed above 
all the right of each parish to choose its own minister. 
Tithes were only to be abolished in part. The peasants 
were determined to be regarded no longer as the ' property 
of others,' for Christ had redeemed all alike with his blood. 
They demanded for everyone the right to hunt and fish, 
because God had given to all men alike power over the 
animal creation. They based their demands upon the Word 
of God ; trusting to His promises they would venture the 
battle. 'If we are- wrong,' they said, 'let Luther set us 
right by the Scriptures.' God, who had freed the children of 
Israel from the hand of Pharaoh, would now shortly deliver 
His people. In these articles, and in other proclamations of 
the peasantry, there were none of the wild imaginations of 
Miinzer and his prophets, nor their ideas of a kingdom and 
schemes of murder. They burned down, it is true, both 
convents and cities, and had done so from the outset. Still 
in some places a more peaceable understanding was arrived 
at with the upper classes, although neither party placed any 
real confidence in the other. 

When now the articles arrived at Wittenberg, and 
Luther heard how the insurgents appealed to him, he pre- 
pared early in April to make a public declaration, in which 
he arraigned their proceedings, but at the same time ex- 
horted the princes to moderation. He was just then called 
away by Count Albert of Mansfeld to Eisleben, to assist, as 
we have seen, in the establishment of a new school in that 
town. He set off thither on Easter Sunday, April 16, after 
preaching in the morning. There he wrote his ' Exhortation 
to peace : On the Twelve Articles of the Peasantry in Swabia. 

In this manifesto he sharply rebukes those princes and 
nobles, bishops and priests, who cease not to rage against 
the gospel, and in their temporal government 'tax and 
fleece their subjects, for the advancement of their own 
pomp and pride, until the common people can endure it no 



316 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

longer.' If God for their punishment allowed the devil to 
stir up tumult against them, He and his gospel were not to 
blame ; but he counselled them to try by gentle means 
to soften, if possible, God's wrath against them. As for 
the peasants, he had never from the first concealed from 
them his suspicions, that many of them only pretended to 
appeal to Scripture, and offered for mere appearance' sake 
to be further instructed therein. But he wished to speak to 
them affectionately, like a friend and a brother, and he ad- 
mitted also that godless lords often laid intolerable burdens 
upon the people. But however much in their articles might 
be just and reasonable, the gospel, he said, had nothing 
to do with then demands, and by their conduct they showed 
that they had forgotten the law of Christ. For by tli3 
Divine law it was forbidden to extort anything from tha 
authorities by force : the badness of the latter was no ex- 
cuse for violence and rebellion. Respecting the substance of 
their demands, their first article, claiming to elect then own 
pastor, if the civil authority refused to provide one, was 
right enough and Christian ; but in that case they must 
maintain him at their own expense, and on no account 
protect him by force against the civil power. As for the 
remaining articles, they had nothing whatever to do with 
the gospel. He tells the peasants plainly, that if they per- 
sist in their rebellion, they are worse enemies to the gospel 
than the Pope and Emperor, for they act against the gospel 
in the gospel's own name. He is bound to speak thus to 
them, although some among them, poisoned by fanatics, 
hate him and call him a hypocrite, and the devil, who was 
not able to kill him through the Pope, would now like to 
destroy and devour him. He is content if only he can save 
some at least of the good-hearted among them from the 
danger of God's indignation. In conclusion, he gives to 
both sides, the nobles and the peasants, his ' faithful counsel 
and advice, that a few counts and lords should be chosen 
from the nobility, and a few councillors from the towns, and 



THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 31) 

that matters should be adjusted and composed in an 
amicable manner — that so the affair, if it cannot be arranged 
in a Christian spirit, may at least be settled according to 
human laws, and agreements.' 

Thus spoke Luther, with all his accustomed frankness, 
fervency, power, and bluntness, equally indifferent to the 
favour of the people or of their rulers. But what fruit, 
indeed, could be looked for from his words, uttered evidently 
with violent inward emotion, when popular passion was so 
excited ? Was it not rather to be feared that the peasants 
would greedily fasten on the first portion of his pamphlet, 
which was directed against the nobles, and then shut their 
ears all the more closely against the second, which concerned 
their own misconduct ? The pamphlet could hardly have 
been written, and much less published, before new rumours 
and forebodings crowded upon, Luther, such as made him 
think its contents and language no longer applicable to the 
emergency, but that now it was his duty to sound aloud 
the call to battle against the enemies of peace and order. 
'In my former tract,' he said, 'I did not venture to con- 
demn the peasants, because they offered themselves to 
reason and better instruction. But before I could look 
about me, forth they rush, and fight and plunder and rage 
like mad dogs. . . . The worst is at Miihlhausen, where 
the arch- devil himself presides.' 

In South Germany, on that very Easter Sunday when 
Luther set out for Eisleben, the scene of horror was 
enacted at Weinsberg, where the peasants, amid the sound 
of pipes and merriment, drove the unhappy Count of Hel- 
fenstein upon their spears, before the eyes of his wife and 
child. Luther's ignorance of this and similar atrocities, 
at the time when he was writing his pamphlet at Eisleben, 
is easily intelligible from the slow means of communication 
then existing. Soon the news came, however, of bands of 
rioters in Thuringia, busy with the work of pillage, incen- 
diarism, and massacre, and of a rising of the peasantry in 



318 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

the immediate neighbourhood. Towards the end of April 
they achieved a crowning triumph by their victorious entry 
into Erfurt, where the preacher, Eberlin of Giinzburg, 
with true loyalty and courage, but all in vain,* had striven, 
with words of exhortation and warning, to pacify the armed 
multitude encamped outside the town, and their sym- 
pathisers and associates inside. 

On April 26 Miinzer advanced to Miihlhausen, the 'arch- 
devil,' as Luther called him, but as he described himself, 
the * champion of the Lord.' He came with four hundred 
followers, and was joined by large masses of the peasants. 
His ' only fear,' as he said in his summons to the miners of 
Mansfeld, • was that the foolish men would fall into the 
snare of a delusive peace.' He promised them a better 
result. ' Wherever there are only three among you who 
trust in God and seek nothing but His honour and glory, 
you need not fear a hundred thousand. . . . Forward 
now ! ' he cried ; ' to work ! to work ! It is time that the 
villains were chased away like dogs ... To work ! relent 
not if Esau gives you fair words. Give no heed to the 
wailings of the ungodly ; they will beg, weep, and entreat 
you for pity, like children. Show them no mercy, as God 
commanded Moses (Deut. vii.) and has declared the same 
to us. . . . To work ! while the fire is hot ; let not the 
blood cool upon your swords. ... To work ! while it is 
day. God is with you ; follow Him ! ' Of Luther he 
spoke in terms of peculiar hatred and contempt. In a 
letter which he addressed to ' Brother Albert of Mansfeld,' 
with the object of converting the Count, he alluded to him 
in expressions of the coarsest possible abuse. 

In Thuringia, in the Harz, and elsewhere, numbers of 
convents, and even castles, were reduced to ashes. The 
princes were everywhere unprepared with the necessary 
troops, while the insurgents in Thuringia and Saxony 
counted more than 30,000 men. The former, therefore, en- 
deavoured to strengthen themselves by coalition. Duke 



THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 319 

John, at Weimar, prepared himself for the worst : his brother, 
the Elector Frederick, was lying seriously ill at his Castle 
at Lochau (now Annaburg) in the district of Torgau. 

At this crisis Luther, having left Eisleben, appeared in 
person among the excited population. He preached at 
Stolberg, Nordhausen, and Wallhausen. In his subsequent 
writings he could bear witness of himself, how he had been 
himself among the peasants, and how, more than once, he 
had imperilled life and limb. On May 3 we find him at 
Weimar ; and a few days afterwards in the county of 
Mansfeld. Here he wrote to his friend, the councillor 
Kuhel of Mansfeld, advising him not to persuade Count 
Albert to be ' lenient in this affair ' — that is, against the 
insurgents ; for the civil power must assert its rights and 
duties, however God might rule the issue. ' Be firm,' he 
entreats Eiihel, ' that his Grace may go boldly on his way. 
Leave the matter to God, and fulfil His commands to wield 
the sword as long as strength endures. Our consciences 
are clear, even if we are doomed to be defeated. ... It is 
but a short time, and the righteous Judge will come.' 

Luther now hastened back to his Elector, having re- 
ceived a summons from him at Lochau. But before he 
could arrive there, Frederick had peacefully breathed his 
last, on May 5. Faithfully and discreetly, and in the 
honest conviction that truth would prevail, he had accorded 
Luther his favour and protection, whilst purposely abstain- 
ing to employ his power as ruler for infringing or invading 
the old-established ordinances of the Church. He allowed 
full liberty of action to the bishops, and carefully avoided 
any personal intercourse with Luther. But in the face of 
death, he confessed the truth of the gospel, as preached by 
Luther, by partaking of the communion in both kinds, and 
refusing the sacrament of extreme unction. 

When his corpse was brought in state to Wittenberg, 
and buried in the Convent Church, Luther, who had to 
preach twice on the occasion, spoke of the universal grief 



320 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

and lamentation that ' our head is fallen, a peaceful man 
and ruler, a calm head.' And he pointed out as the ' most 
grievous sorrow of all,' how this loss had happened just in 
those dimcul-t and wondrous times when, unless God inter- 
posed His arm, destruction threatened the whole of Ger- 
many. He exhorted his hearers to confess to God their 
own ingratitude for His mercy in having given them such 
a noble vessel of His grace. But of those who set them- 
selves against authorities, he declared, in the words of the 
Apostle (Rom. xiii. 2), that 'they shall receive to them- 
selves damnation.' ' This text,' he said, ' will do more 
than all the guns and spears.' 

Quite in the same spirit that dictated his letter sent to 
Ruhel only a few days before at Mansfeld, Luther now sent 
forth a public summons ' Against the murderous and plun- 
dering bands of peasants.' He began it with the words 
already quoted, ' Before I could look about me, forth they 
rush . . . and rage like mad dogs.' 

Thus he wrote when he saw the danger was at its highest. 
He even suggested the possibility ' that the peasants might 
get the upper hand (which God forbid !) ; ' and that ' God 
perhaps willed that, in preparation for the Last Day, the 
devil should be allowed to destroy all order and authority, 
and the world turned into a howling wilderness.' But he 
called upon the Christian authorities, with all the more 
urgency and vehemence, to use the sword against the 
devilish villains, as God had given them command. They 
should leave the issue to God, acknowledge to Him that 
they had well deserved His judgments, and thus with a 
good conscience and confidence ' fight as long as they could 
move a muscle.' Whosoever should fall on their side would 
be a true martyr in God's eyes, if he had fought with such a 
conscience. Then, thinking of the many better people who 
had been forced by the bloodthirsty peasants and murderous 
prophets to join the devilish confederacy, he broke out by 
exclaiming, ' Dear lords, help them, save them, take pity 



THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 321 

upon these poor men; but as to the rest, stab, crush, 
strangle whom you can.' 

These words of Luther were speedily fulfilled by the 
events. The Saxon princes, the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, 
the Duke of Brunswick, and the Counts of Mansfeld com- 
bined together before the mass of the peasants in Thuringia 
and Saxony had collected into a large army. On May 15 
the forces of Miinzer, numbering about 8,000 men, were 
defeated in the battle of Frankenhausen. Miinzer himself 
was taken prisoner, and, crushed in mind and spirit, 
was executed like a criminal. A few days before, the main 
army of the Swabian peasants had been routed, and during 
the following weeks, one stronghold of the rebellion after 
another was reduced, and the horrors perpetrated by the 
peasants were repaid with fearful vengeance on their heads. 
The Landgrave Philip, and John, the new Elector of 
Saxony, distinguished themselves by their clemency in dis- 
missing unpunished to their homes, after the victory, a 
number of the insurgent peasants. 

But Luther's violent denunciations now gave offence even 
to some of his friends. His Catholic opponents, and those 
even who saw no harm in burning heretics wholesale for no 
other reason than their faith, reproached him then, and do so 
even now, with horrible cruelty for this language. Luther 
replied to the ' complaints and questions about his pamph- 
let,' with a public 'Epistle on the harsh pamphlet against 
the peasants.' His excitement and irritation was increased 
by what he heard talked about his conduct. He maintained 
what he had said. But he also reminded his readers, that 
he had never, as his calumniators accused him, spoken of 
acting against the conquered and humbled, but solely of 
smiting those actually engaged in rebellion. He declared 
further, at the close of his new and forcible remarks on the 
use of the sword, that Christian authorities, at any rate, 
were bound, if victorious, to ' show mercy not only to the 
innocent, but also to the guilty.' As for the ' furious 

Y 



322 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

raging and senseless tyrants, who even after the battle cannot 
satiate themselves with blood, and throughout their life never 
trouble themselves about Christ ' — with these he will have 
nothing whatever to do. Similarly, in a small tract on 
Miinzer, containing characteristic extracts from the writings 
of this ' bloodthirsty prophet,' as a warning to the people, 
Luther entreated the lords and civil authorities ' to be 
toerciful to the prisoners and those who surrendered, . . . 
so that the tables should not be turned upon the victors.' 
If we have now to lament, as we must, that after the 
rebellion was put down, nothing was done to remedy the 
real evils that caused it ; nay, that those very evils were 
rather increased as a punishment for the vanquished, this 
reproach at least applies just as much to the Catholic lords, 
both spiritual and temporal, as to the Evangelical authorities 
or Luther. 

In addition also to his alleged harshness and severity to 
the insurgents, Luther was accused, both then and siuce, 
by his ecclesiastical opponents, of having given rise to the 
rebellion by his preaching and writings. When the danger 
and anxiety were over, Eraser had the effrontery to say 
of him in some popular doggrel, 'Now that he has lit 
the fire, he washes his hands like Pilate, and turns his 
cloak to the wind ; ' and again, ' He himself cannot deny 
that he exhorted you to rebellion, and called all of you dear 
children of God, who gave up to it your lives and property, 
and washed your hands in blood. Thus did he write in 
public, and thereto has he striven.' 

In answer to this charge, Luther referred to his treatise 
* On the Secular Power,' and to other of his writings. 'I 
know well,' he was able to say with truth, ' that no teacher 
before me has written so strongly about secular authority ; 
my very enemies ought to thank me for this. Who ever 
made a stronger stand against the peasants, with writing 
and preaching, than myself? ' Among the Estates of the 
Empire, not even the most violent enemies of evangelical 



THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 



3 2 3 




iQ&AS J7\V?I C EBs^ V RED 10 



TIN l)VRJNGEm 



Fig. 28. — Munzee (his execution in the background. 
From an old woodcut. 



324 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

doctrine could venture now to turn their victorious weapons 
against their associates in arms who espoused that doc- 
trine, with whom they had achieved the common conquest, 
and from whose midst had sounded the most vigorous call 
to battle and to victory. Luther, on the contrary, was not 
afraid at this moment to exhort the Archbishop, Cardinal 
Albert, of whose friendly disposition to himself, his friend 
Buhel had recently informed him, to follow the example of 
his cousin, the Grand Master in Prussia, by converting his 
bishopric into a temporal princedom, and entering the state 
of matrimony, and to name, as the chief motive for so 
doing, the ' hateful and horrible rebellion,' wherewith God's 
wrath had visited the sins of the priesthood. 

Thus did Luther, in these stormy times, whatever 
might be thought of the violence of his utterances, take 
up his position clearly and resolutely froni the first, and 
maintain it to the end; — sure of his cause, and safe against 
the new attack which he saw now the devil was making ; 
unyielding and defiant towards hi 3 old Papal enemies and 
then new calumniations. And in this frame of mind he 
took just now a step, calculated to sharpen all the tongues 
of slander, but one in which he saw the fulfilment of his 
calling. Freed from unchristian monastic vows, he entered 
into the holy state of matrimony ordained by God. We 
first hear him speaking decidedly on this subject in a letter 
to Kuhel of May 4. After referring to the devil as the 
instigator of the insurgent peasants, and of the murderous 
deeds which made him anxious to prepare himself for 
death, he continues with the following remarkable words : 
( And if I can, in spite of him, I will take my Kate in mar- 
riage before I die. I hope they will not take from me my 
courage and my joy.' 



325 



CHAPTEE VI. 

luther's marriage. 

Our readers will recall to mind those words of Luther at 
the Wartburg, on hearing that his teaching was making the 
clergy marry and monks renounce the obligation of their 
vows. No wife, he declared, should be forced upon him. 
He remained in his convent ; looked on quietly, as one 
friend and fellow-labourer after the other took advantage of 
their liberty ; wished them happiness in the enjoyment of 
it, and advised others to do the same ; but never changed 
his views about himself. 

His enemies reproached him with living a worldly life, 
with drinking beer in company with his friends, with play- 
ing the lute, and so on. Nor was it merely his Catholic 
opponents who sought in such charges material for vile 
slander, but also jealous ranters like Miinzer gave vent to 
their hatred in this manner. All the more remarkable it is 
that no slanderous reports of immoral conduct were ever 
launched at this time, even by his bitterest enemies, against 
the man who was denouncing so openly and sternly offences 
of that description among the superior, no less than the 
inferior, clergy. Calumnies of this kind were reserved for 
the occasion of his marriage. 

In truth, his life was one of the most arduous labour, 
anxiety, and excitement ; and as regards his bodily needs, 
he was satisfied with the plainest and most sparing diet and 
the simplest enjoyments. The Augustinian convent, whence 
he received his support, being gradually denuded of its 
inmates by their abandonment of monastic life, its revenues 



326 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

accordingly were stopped. Luther informed Spalatin in 
1524 of the poverty to which they were reduced ; not indeed, 
as Spalatin well knew, that he concerned himself much 
about it, or wished to make it a subject of complaint ; if 
he had no meat or wine, he could live well enough on bread 
and water. Melancthon describes how once, before his 
marriage, Luther's bed had not been made for a whole year, 
and was mildewed with perspiration. ' I was tired out,' 
says Luther, ' and worked myself nearly to death, so that I 
fell into the bed and knew nothing about it.' 

When, moreover, he exchanged, as we have seen, in the 
autumn of 1524, the monastic cowl for the garb of a pro- 
fessor ; and when he and the prior Brisger were the only 
ones of all the former monks left in the convent, he remained 
quietly where he was, and never entertained the idea of 
marriage. A noble lady, Argula von Staufen, wife of the 
Eitter von Grumbach, formerly in the Bavarian army, who 
had written publicly for the cause of the gospel, and thereby 
incurred, with her husband, the displeasure of the Duke of 
Bavaria, and who was now in active correspondence with 
the Wittenbergers and Spalatin, expressed to the latter her 
surprise that Luther did not marry. Luther thereupon 
wrote to Spalatin on November 30, 1524, saying, * I am not 
surprised that folks gossip thus about me, as they gossip 
about many other things. But please thank the lady in 
my name, and tell her that I am in the hands of the Lord, 
as a creature whose heart He can change and re-change, 
destroy or revive, at any hour or moment ; but as my heart 
has hitherto been, and is now, it will never come to pass 
that I shall take a wife. Not that I am insensible to my 
flesh or sex, . . . but because my mind is averse to wed- 
lock, because I daily expect the death and the well-merited 
punishment of a heretic' 

Shortly afterwards Luther wrote to his friend Link : 
' Suddenly, and while I was occupied with far other thoughts, 
the Lord has plunged me into marriage.' It was in the 



LUTHER'S MARRIAGE. 327 

spring of 1525 that he had formed this resolve, which 
speedily ripened to its fulfilment. 

In a letter of March 12, 1525, he complained to his 
friend Amsdorf, who had gone to Magdeburg, of depression 
of spirits and temptation, and besought him to pay him a 
friendly visit to cheer him. It was, as we see from the 
contents of the letter, a temptation, which caused Luther 
to feel that, in the words of Scripture, it was ' not good for 
man to be alone,' bat that he ought to have a help-meet to 
be with him. As to the choice of such a help-meet he may 
have already talked with Amsdorf, and very possibly they 
may have spoken of a lady of Magdeburg of the family of 
Alemann, who were conspicuous there for their devotion to 
the evangelical cause. 

But Luther's own choice turned on Catharine von Bora, 
a former nun. Sprung from an ancient, though poor family 
of noble blood, she had been brought up from childhood in 
the convent of Nimtzch near Grimma. We find her there 
as early as 1509 ; she was born on January 29, 1499, and 
was consecrated as a nun at the age of sixteen. When the 
evangelical doctrine became known at Nimtzch, Catharine 
endeavoured with other nuns to break the bonds, which she 
had taken upon herself without any real free-will or know- 
ledge of her own. In vain she entreated her relatives to 
release her. At length one Leonhard Koppe, a burgher 
and councillor of Torgau, took her part. Assisted by him 
and two of his friends, nine nuns escaped secretly from the 
convent on Easter Eve, April 5, 1523. Luther justified 
their escape in a public letter addressed to Koppe, and 
collected funds for their support, until they could be further 
provided for. They fled first to Wittenberg, and here 
Catharine stayed at the house of the town clerk and future 
burgomaster, Philip Beichenbach. 

She was now in her twenty- sixth year, when Luther 
turned his thoughts towards her. He told afterwards his 
friends and Catharine herself, with perfect frankness, that 



328 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

he had not been in love with her before, for he had his 
suspicions, and they were not unfounded, that she was 
proud. He had even thought, shortly before, of arranging 
a marriage between her and a minister named Glatz, who 
later on, however, proved himself unworthy of his office. 
Catharine, on the other hand, is said to have gone to 
Amsdorf, as the trusted friend of Luther, and to have told 
him frankly that she did not wish to marry Glatz, but was 
ready to form an honourable alliance with himself or with 
Luther. If Cranach's portrait of her is to be trusted, she 
was not remarkable for beauty or any outward attraction. 
But she was a healthy, strong, frank and true German 
woman. Luther might reasonably expect to have in her a 
loyal, fresh-hearted, and staunch help-meet for his life, 
whose own cares or requirements would cause him little 
anxiety, while she would be just such a companion as, with 
his physical ailments and mental troubles, he required. In 
the event of her haughty disposition asserting itself unduly, 
he was the very man to correct it with quiet firmness and 
affection. 

What further considerations induced him to marry, 
appear from his letters, in which he urged his friends to do 
likewise. Thus he wrote on March 27 to Wolfgang Eeis- 
senbusch, preceptor of the convent at Lichtenberg, saying 
that man was created by God for marriage. God had so 
made man that he could not well do without it ; whoever 
was ashamed of marrying, must also be ashamed of his 
manhood, or must pretend to be wiser than God. The 
devil had slandered the married state by letting people 
who lived in immorality be held in high honour. Luther, 
in thus frankly stating the natural disposition of man to 
married life, spoke from his own experience. ' To remain 
righteous unmarried,' he said once later on, 'is not the 
least of trials, as those know well who have made the 
attempt.' In referring as he did to the devil, he probably 
had in his mind the scandal which threatened him if he 



LUTHER'S MARRIAGE. 329 

should decide on marrying. He then goes on to say to 
Reissenbusch that if he honoured the Word and work of 
God, the scandal would be only a matter of a moment, to 
be followed by years of honour. To Spalatin he writes on 
April 10 : ' 1 find so many reasons for urging others to 
marry, that I shall soon be brought to it myself, notwith- 
standing that enemies never cease to condemn the married 
state, and our little wiseacres ridicule it every day.' The 
' wiseacres ' he was thinking of were professors and theo- 
logians of his circle at Wittenberg. Not only was he 
resolved, however, to obey the will of his Creator, despite 
all condemnation and ridicule, but he deemed it his duty to 
testify to the rightness of the step by his example as well 
as by his words. His enemies, in fact, were taunting him 
that he did not venture to practise himself what he preached 
to others. A few days after, immediately before his depar- 
ture for Eisleben, he wrote again to Spalatin, recommend- 
ing his friend, who had been so utterly averse to matrimon}% 
to take care that he was not anticipated in the step. 

Amidst all the terrors of the Peasants' War, which had 
now broken out in all its violence, and in earnest contem- 
plation of a near end possibly threatening himself, he had 
formed the fixed resolve, as his letter of May 4 to Kiihel 
shows, to ' take his Kate to wife, in spite of the devil.' 
This is the first letter in which he mentions her name to a 
friend. And to this resolve he steadily adhered during the 
troublous weeks that followed, when he was called on to 
pay the last honours to his Elector, to rouse men to the 
sanguinary contest with the peasants, and to hear con- 
tumely and reproach heaped upon his stirring words. Be- 
sides writing to the Cardinal Albert himself, recommending 
him to marry, he sent a letter also on June 3 to his friend 
Eiihel, who held office as one of his advisers, saying, ' If 
my marrying might serve in any way to strengthen his 
Grace to do the same, I should be very willing to set his 
Grace the example ; for I have a mind, before leaving this 



33c EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 

world, to enter the married state, to which I believe God 
has called me.' He had thoughts of this kind, he added, 
even if it should end only in a betrothal, and not an actual 
marriage. 

He speedily gave effect to his final resolve, in order to 
cut short all the loose and idle gossip which threatened 
him as soon as his intentions were known with regard to 
Catharine von Bora. He took none of his friends into his 
confidence, but acted, as he afterwards advised others to 
act. ' It is not good,' he said, ' to talk much about such 
matters. A man must ask God for counsel, and pray, and 
then act accordingly.' 

As to how he finally came to terms with Catharine we 
have no account to show. But on the evening of June 13, 
on the Tuesday after the feast of the Trinity, he invited to 
his house his friends Bugenhagen, the parish priest of the 
town, Jonas, the professor and provost of the church of 
All Saints, Lucas Cranach with his wife, and the juristic 
professor Apel, formerly a dean of the Cathedral at Bam- 
berg, who himself had married a nun, and in their presence 
was married to Catharine. The marriage was solemnised 
in the customary way. The pair were asked, by the priest 
present, Bugenhagen, according to the custom prevailing 
in Germany, and which Luther afterwards followed in 
his tract on Marriage, whether they would take one 
mother for husband and wife ; their right hands were then 
joined together, and thus, in the name of the Trinity, they 
were 'joined together in matrimony.' The ceremony was 
therewith concluded, and Catharine remained thenceforth 
with Luther as his wife. Some days after Luther gave a 
little breakfast to his friends ; and the magistracy, of 
whom Cranach was a member, sent him their congratula- 
tions, together with a present of wine. A fortnight later, 
on June 27, Luther celebrated his wedding in grander 
style, by a nuptial feast, in order to gather his distant 
friends around him. He wrote to them saying that they 



LUTHER'S MARRIAGE. 331 

were to ' seal and ratify ' his marriage, and ' help to pro- 
nounce the benediction.' Above all he rejoiced to be able 
to see his ' dear father and mother ' at the feast. Among the 
motives for his marrying he especially mentioned that n^ 
had felt himself bound to fulfil an old duty, in accordance 
with his father's wishes. 

Great as was the surprise which Luther occasioned by 
his speedy marriage, it was no greater than the talk and 
sensation that immediately ensued. 

Among even his adherents and friends — especially the 
' wiseacres ' of whom he had spoken — there was much 
astonishment and shaking of heads. It was considered 
that the great man had lowered himself, and gossip was 
busy in asking what reasons could have induced him to 
take the step. Melancthon, his devoted friend, lost for the 
moment, as is shown by his letter of June 16 to the philo- 
logist Camerarius, his accustomed self-possession. He 
admitted that married life was a holy state, and one well- 
pleasing to God, and that its results might be beneficial to 
Luther's nature and character ; but he was of opinion that 
Luther's lowering himself to this condition was a lament- 
able act of weakness, and injurious to his reputation— and 
that, too, at a time when Germany was more than ever in 
need of all his spirit and his energy. Luther had not 
invited him to be present on the 13th, from a suspicion 
that Melancthon would scarcely approve of what he was 
doing. A few days afterwards, however, he warmly be- 
sought Link, their common friend, to be sure and attend 
then- nuptial feast on the 27th. That Luther, in this 
respect also, had acted as a man of strong character and 
determination, would soon be evident to them all. 

His enemies seized the occasion of his marriage to 
spread vulgar falsehoods about him, which soon were further 
exaggerated, and have been raked up shamelessly again, 
even in our own time, or at least repeated in veiled and 
scandalous inuendoes. 



332 



EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 



As for Luther himself, he at first felt strange in the 
new mode of life which he had entered at the age of forty- 
one, so suddenly, and in the midst of his arduous labours, 
and the stirring public events and struggles of the time. 
At the same time he could not but be aware of the un- 
favourable reception which his step would encounter, 
even with his friends at Wittenberg. Melancthon found 




Fig. 29. 



-Luther. (From a Portrait by Cranach in 1525.) 

At Wittenberg. 



him, during the early days of his married life, in a restless 
and uncertain mood. But he remained firm in his con- 
viction that God had called him to the married state. The 
same da,> that Melancthon wrote so anxiously to Camerarius 
about his marriage, Luther himself wrote to Spalatin, say- 
ing, ' I have made myself so vile and contemptible forsooth, 
that all the angels, I hope, will laugh, and all the devils 



LUTHER'S MARRIAGE. 



333 



weep.' In his letter of invitation to his friends for June 27, 
friendly humour is mingled with words of deep earnestness ; 
nay, even with thoughts of death, and a longing for release 
from this infatuated world. Later on Luther preached, on 
the ground of his own experiences, about the blessings, 
the joys, and the purifying burdens of the state ordained 
and sanctified by God, and never without an expression of 




Fig. 30. — Catharine von Bora, Luther's wife. (From a Portrait by 
Cranacli about 1525.) At Berlin. 

gratitude to God for having brought him to enter into it. 
Seventeen years after his marriage he bore testimony to 
Catharine in his will, that she had been to him a ' pious, 
faithful, and devoted wife, always loving, worthy, and 
beautiful.' 

Of the wedding feast of June 27 we have no further 
details. It was, so far as concerns the repast, a very 



334 



EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE. 



simple one, as compared with the elaborate nuptial enter- 
tainments then in fashion. The university presented 
Luther with a beautifully chased goblet of silver, bearing 
round its base the words : ' The honourable University of 
the Electoral town of Wittenberg presents this wedding 
gift to Doctor Martin Luther and his wife Kethe von Bora.' l 




Fig. 31. — Luther's King from Catharine. 

Apartments in the convent, which Brisger also quitted 
shortly after to become a minister, were appointed by the 
Elector as the dwelling-place of Luther. Here, therefore, 
Catharine had to manage her household. 

Protestant posterity has been anxious to retain a me- 
morial of this marriage in the wedding rings of the newly- 





Fig. 32.— Luther's Double Ring. 

married couple. These, however, were probably not used at 
the marriage itself, since Luther wished to have it solemnised 
so quickly and without the knowledge of others. But a 
ring has been preserved, which Luther, to judge from the in- 
scription (D. Martino Luthero Catharina v. Boren 13 Jun. 

1 The goblet is now in the possession of the University of Greifswald. 



LUTHER'S MARRIAGE. 335 

1525), received at any rate from his Kate as a supplementary 
reminiscence of the day. In recent times — about 1817 — 
it has been multiplied by several copies. It bears the figure 
of the crucified Saviour and the instruments of His death ; 
in perfect keeping with the spirit of the Eeformer, whose 
marriage, like the other acts of his life, was concluded in 
the name of Christ crucified. There exists also, in the 
Ducal Museum at Brunswick, a double ring, consisting of 
two interfastened in the middle, of which one bears a 
diamond with his initials M. L. D., and the other a ruby 
with the initials of his wife, C. v. B. The inner surface 
of the first ring is engraved with the words : ' Was . Got . 
zusamen . fiegt,' (Those whom God hath joined together), 
and the second, ' Sol . kein . mensch . scheiden,' (Shall 
no man put asunder). This double ring was probably given 
by some friend to Luther, or, as others suppose, to his 
wife. 



PAET V. 

LUTHER AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH, 
TO THE FIRST RELIGIOUS PEACE. 1525-1532. 



CHAPTEE I. 

SURVEY. 



The year 1525 marks in the life of Luther and the history 
of the Reformation an epoch and a departure of general 
importance. 

Luther's preaching had originally forced its way among 
the German people and its various classes, with an energy 
and strength never counted on by its opponents. It seemed 
impossible to calculate how far the ferment would extend, 
and what would be its ultimate results. It was the idea of 
the Elector Frederick the Wise, now dead, that by simply 
letting the word of the gospel unfold itself quietly and 
work its way without hindrance, the truth could not fail 
eventually to penetrate all Christendom, or at least the 
Christian world of Germany, and thus accomplish a peace- 
ful victory. This hope had guided him during his lifetime 
in his relations with Luther, and no one appreciated and 
responded to it more loyally than Luther himself. But 
now, as we have seen, those German princes who adhered 
to the old Church system had begun to form a close 
alliance, and were meditating means of remedying, albeit 
in their own fashion, certain evils in the Church. Erasmus, 
still the representative of a powerful modern movement of 



SURVEY. 337 

the intellect, had at length broken finally with Luther, and 
renewed his former allegiance to the Eomish Church. From 
the German nobility, whose sympathy and co-operation 
Luther had once so boldly and hopefully invoked in his 
contest with the Papacy, it was vain, since the fatal 
enterprise of Sickingen, which Luther himself had been 
forced to condemn, to expect any material assistance in 
furtherance of the Evangelical cause. True, there was 
the extensive rising of another class, the peasantry, who 
likewise appealed to the gospel. But genuine disciples of 
the gospel could not fail to see in this movement, with terror, 
how a perverse conception of the sacred text led to errors 
and crimes which even Luther wished to see suppressed in 
blood. And the Catholic nobles took advantage of this 
rising to persecute with the greater rigour all evangelical 
preaching, and to extend, without further inquiry, their 
denunciation of the insurgents to those of evangelical 
sympathies who held entirely aloof from the insurrection. 
Luther, in his dealings with the nobles and peasants, failed 
to preserve that boldness and confidence of mind and 
language which he had previously displayed towards his 
fellow-countrymen. That his cause, indeed, was the cause 
of God, he remained unshakenly convinced ; but in a sadder 
spirit than he had ever shown before, he left God's will 
to determine what amount of visible success that cause 
should attain to in the present evil world, or how far the 
decision should depend upon His last great Judgment. 

Even before the Peasants' War broke out, the pro- 
ceedings of the fanatics had begun to hamper and disturb his 
labours in the field of reformation, and had prepared for him 
much pain and tribulation. He had to grow distrustful of 
so many whom he had regarded as brothers, and of their man- 
ner of proclaiming the Word of God, Whom they pretended 
to serve. He already heard of men among them, who not 
only rejected infant baptism, and openly attacked his own, 
no less than the Catholic doctrine of the Sacrament, but 

z 



338 



RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 




SURVEY. 



339 



who impugned the universal belief of Christendom in the 
Triune God and the Divinity of the Saviour. Early in 1525 
news reached him of such a man at Nuremberg, John Denk, 
the Kector of the school there, who was expelled on that 
account by the magistrates. Luther's own doctrine of the 
presence of Christ's Body in the Lord's Supper, which he 
had previously to defend against Carlstadt, his former 
colleague and fellow-combatant, now found a far more 
formidable opponent in the Zurich Beformer, Ulrich 
Zwingli. The latter, in a letter of November 16, 1524, to 
Alber, a preacher at Eeutlingen, had already disputed the 




Fig. 34. — Facsimile of Fkederick's signature. 



Eeal Presence, by interpreting the words ' This is my body ' 
to mean ' This signifies my body.' In March 1525 he made 
known this interpretation to the world by publishing his 
letter, together with a pamphlet ' On the True and False 
Eeligion.' He was joined at Basle by Oecolampadius, 
whom Luther had welcomed formerly as a fellow-labourer, 
and who published his own interpretation of the words of 
Christ. Butzer and Capito, the evangelical preachers at 
Strasburg, inclined to the same view, which threatened to 
spread rapidly over the South of Germany. The opposition 
now encountered by Luther was far more dangerous for his 

z 2 



34o RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

teaching than the theories and agitations of a Carlstadt, 
since whatever judgment may be formed about its merits, 
it proceeded at any rate from men of far more thought- 
ful minds, more solid theological acquirements, and more 
honest reverence for the Word of God. Herewith then 
began that division of opinion among the ranks of the 
Evangelical Reformers, which served more than anything 
else to retard the fresh and vigorous progress of the 
Reformation, and infected even Luther's spirit with the 
bitterness of the controversy it entailed. 

At the same time, however, Luther had now won firm 
ground for the Evangelical cause upon a fixed and extensive 
territory. Within these limits it was possible to construct 
a new Church system, upon stable foundations and with a 
new constitution. John, the new Elector of Saxony, did 
not enjoy, it is true, the same high consideration through- 
out the Empire as his brother Frederick, Luther's great 
protector, and he was also his inferior as a statesman. 
But with Luther himself both he and his son John 
Frederick had already maintained a friendly personal inter- 
course, such as his predecessor had carefully avoided. Nor 
did his disposition lead him, like Frederick, to pay any such 
regard to the possible preservation of Church unity in the 
German Empire and Western Christendom ; on the contrary, 
he soon showed his readiness to undertake independently, 
as sovereign of his country, the establishment of a new 
Evangelical Church. Prussia had just preceded him in a 
reform embracing the whole country, under the former 
Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, their present Duke. 
The Elector now found a further ally for the work in the 
Landgrave Philip of Hesse, the most active and politically 
the most important of all. As a young man of. only twenty 
years of age, in the beginning of 1525, he had rendered 
valuable service by his energy, resolution, and warlike 
ability, in the defeat of Sickingen, and again when opposed 
to the seditious peasants. Already before the Peasants' 



SURVEY. 341 

War commenced, he had acquired, mainly through Melanc- 
thon, whom he had met when travelling, a knowledge and 

)9on jgottesnattfnpfylibs Kanbtgraffc SulfaefTen ©rauc 311 Catsenndnooscn 




Fig. 35.— Philip of Hesse. (From a woodcut of Brosamer.) 

love of the evangelical doctrines. His father-in-law, Duke 
George of Saxony, had vainly endeavoured, after their 



mm 



342 RECONSTRUCT/ON OF THE CHURCH. 

common victory over the insurgents, to alienate him from 
the cause of the hateful Luther, who he said was the author 
of so much mischief. But the menaces hurled against 
that cause by the Catholic States of the Empire served 
only to attach him more closely and loyally to John and 
John Frederick, and thence resulted in the following 
spring the League of Torgau, which was joined also by the 
princes of Brunswick-Liineburg, Anhalt, and Mecklenburg, 
and the town of Magdeburg. The co-operation of the 
territorial princes made it possible to procure for the 
Beformation and its Church system a firm position in the 
German Empire against the Emperor and the hostile 
Catholic States. And, at the same time, it offered means 
for establishing on the ground newly occupied by the 
Beformation itself, firm and generally recognised regula- 
tions of Church polity, and defending them from being 
disturbed by the proceedings of fanatics. 

Under these new conditions and circumstances, Luther's 
work became limited, as was natural, to a narrower field, 
and bore no longer the same character of boldness and 
independence which had marked it in his original contest 
with Borne. But it required, on this account, all the more 
perseverance and patience, faithfulness and circumspection 
in minor matters, and an adequate regard to what was 
actually required and practicable, while clinging firmly to 
the lofty aims and objects with which the work of the 
Beformation had commenced. 

To the portrait of Luther as the Beformer we have to 
add henceforth that of the married man and head of the 
household, whose single desire is to fulfil, as a man and a 
Christian, the duties belonging to this state of life, and to 
enjoy with a quiet conscience the blessings of God. In his 
letters to intimate friends we find happy home news alter- 
nating with the most profound and serious reflections on 
the conduct and duties of the Evangelical Church, and on 
abstruse questions of theology. His language as a Beformer 



SURVEY. 343 

deals now no longer, as in his Address to the German 
Nobility, in particular, with the problems and interests of 
political and social life ; it is mainly to religious and spirit- 
ual matters, and to the kindred questions affecting the 
active work and constitution of the Church, that his mission 
is now directed. But his personal relations with his 
countrymen became all the more close and intimate in 
consequence of this change of life ; and that which by 
many of his friends was regretted as a lowering of his re- 
putation and influence, becomes a valuable and essential 
ieature in the historical portrait now presented to our eyes. 
In single dramatic incidents and changes, so to speak, 
Luther's life henceforth, as was only natural, is no longer 
so rich as during the earlier years of development and 
struggle. We shall no longer meet with crises of such a 
kind as mark a momentous epoch. 



344 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTEE II. 

CONTINUED LABOUBS AND PEKSONAL LIFE TO 1529. 

Among the particular labours which occupied Luther during 
the further course of the year 1525, apart from his per- 
severing industry as a professor and preacher, we have 
already had occasion to mention one, namely, his reply to 
Erasmus. We find him towards the end of September 
entirely engrossed in this work. Not a single proposition 
in Erasmus' book, so he wrote to Spalatin, would he admit. 

The reckless severity with which he assailed that dis- 
tinguished opponent appears all the more remarkable when 
contrasted with the conciliatory tone whereby he was then 
hoping to appease the wrath of his two bitterest enemies 
in high places, King Henry VIII. of England and Duke 
George of Saxony. 

On September 1, 1525, he addressed a humble letter to 
Henry. King Christian II. of Denmark, who, after forfeiting 
his throne by his arbitrary and despotic rule, had taken refuge 
with the Elector Frederick, showed an inclination to favour 
the new doctrine, and even came in person to Wittenberg. 
By him Luther was induced to believe — for what reason it 
does not appear— that Henry VIII. had entirely changed his 
Church principles ; and to hope that, if only he could make 
amends for the personal offence he had given him, Henry 
might be won over still further for the Evangelical cause. 
Luther refers to this hope as follows : ' My Most Gracious 
Sire the King gave me good cause to hope for the King of 
England. . . . and ceased not to urge me by speech and 
letter, giving me so many good words, and telling me that 



CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 345 

I ought to write humbly, and that it would be useful to do 
so, and so forth, until I am fairly intoxicated with the idea.' 
He then cast himself in his letter at the feet of his Majesty, 
and besought him to pardon him for the offence he had 
given by his earlier pamphlet, ' because from good witnesses 
he had learned that the Eoyal treatise which he had 
attacked, was not indeed the work of the King himself, but 
a concoction of the miserable Cardinal of York ' (Edward 
Lee). He promised to make a public retractation, in another 
pamphlet, for the sake of the King's honour. At the same 
time, he wished that the grace of God might assist his 
Majesty, and enable him to turn wholly to the gospel, and 
shut his ears against the siren voices of its enemies. 

With regard to Duke George of Saxony, all that Luther 
had as yet heard about him was that he was incessantly 
bringing fresh complaints about him to the Elector, that he 
rigorously excluded the new teaching from his own territory, 
and, what was more, that he was anxious to go on from the 
conquest of the peasants to the suppression of Luther - 
anism, which had been the cause, he declared, of all the 
mischief. Now, however, Luther learned from certain Saxon 
nobles, that the Duke himself was not so unfavourably 
disposed to the cause, and was willing to treat with mild- 
ness and toleration those who preached or confessed the 
gospel ; that it was with Luther personally that he was so 
offended and irritated, Luther wrote to him on Decem- 
ber 22 of this year. ' I have been advised,' he says, ' once 
more to entreat your Grace in this letter, with all humility 
and friendship, for it almost seems to me as if God, our 
Lord, would soon take some of us from hence, and the fear 
is that Duke George and Luther may also have to go.' He 
then entreats, with all submission, his pardon for whatever 
wrong he had done the Duke by writing or in speech; 
but of his doctrine he could, for conscience' sake, retract 
nothing. Luther, however, did not humble himself to 
George as he had done to King Henry, and his letter bears 



«nn 



346 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

his characteristic sharpness of tone. He assured the Duke, 
however, that, with all his former severity of language 
towards him, he was a better friend to him than all his 
sycophants and parasites, and that the Duke had no need 
to pray to God against him. 

Luther undoubtedly wrote the two letters, as he himself 
says of the one to Henry, with a simple and honest heart. 
They show, indeed, how much genuine good-nature, and at 
the same time how strange an ignorance of the world and 
of men, was combined in him together with a passionate 
zeal for combat. George answered him at once with 
ferocity, and, as Luther says, with the coarseness of a 
peasant. The prince, otherwise not ignoble, was so em- 
bittered by hatred against the heretic as to reproach him 
with the vulgarest motives of avarice, ambition, and the 
lust of the flesh. Never had Luther, even with his worst 
enemies, stooped to such personal slander. Concerning 
the answer which came afterwards from King Henry, as 
well as the reply of Erasmus, we shall speak further on. 

Meanwhile, Luther and his friends were directing their 
attention to the newly published doctrine of the Last Supper. 
At first Luther left others to contest it : Bugenhagen 
addressed a public letter against it to his friend Hess at 
Breslau ; Brenz at Schwabish Hall, together with other 
Swabian preachers, published tracts against Oecolampadius. 
Luther himself, after February 1525, referred repeatedly 
to Zwingli's theory in sermons to the congregation at 
Wittenberg which were printed at the time. But beyond 
this he confined himself to sending warnings by letter, on 
November 5, 1525, and January 4, 1526, to Strasburg and 
Beutlingen, whence he had been appealed to on the subject, 
against the false doctrines which had been put forward con- 
cerning the Sacrament, and particularly against the fanatics. 
We shall follow later on the further course of the con- 
troversy. 

All these polemics, however, were only an adjunct to his 



CONTINUED LAS OURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 347 

positive labours and activity. His chief task now was to 
carry out the work he had begun in his own Church. For 
this he could rely with certainty on the inward sympathy 
of the new Elector, and he hastened to turn it actively 
to account as soon as possible, for the furtherance of 
his Church objects. During his communications with 
the late Elector Frederick, Spalatin had always acted as 
intermediary ; but to John he addressed himself direct, and, 
whenever occasion offered, by word of mouth, and this at 
times with much urgency. Spalatin was now the pastor of 
a parish, as had been his wish some time before. He was 
the successor at Altenburg of Link, who had removed to 
Nuremberg, and he enjoyed the especial confidence of John. 

In his official capacity Luther was, and always remained, 
before all things, a member of the university. He cherished 
at all times a lively appreciation of its importance to the cause 
of evangelical truth, the Church, and the common welfare of 
society. He began by pleading on its behalf to the new 
Elector, to remedy the defects and grievances which had 
crept in during the latter years of the old and ailing Elector 
Frederick. The requisite salary, in particular, was wanting 
for several of the professorships, and the customary lectures 
on many branches of study had been dropped. Luther, as he 
himself afterwards told the Elector in a tone of apology, had 
' worried him sorely to put the university in order,' so 
much so that ' his urgency wellnigh surprised the Elector, 
as though he had not much faith in his promises.' In Sep- 
tember the necessary reforms at Wittenberg were provided 
for by a commission specially appointed by the prince. 
The interest the latter took in theology made him double 
Melancthon's salary, in order to attach him the more closely 
to the theological lectures, which originally were not part 
of his duty. 

Luther next devoted all his energies towards the require- 
ments of the new Church system. 

At Wittenberg, and from thence in other places, regula- 



348 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

tions for the performance of public worship had already been 
established, with the object of giving full and free expres- 
sion to evangelical truth. The congregation had the Word 
of God read aloud to them, and joined in the singing of 
German hymns. The portions of the Liturgy, however, 
which were sung partly by the priests and partly by the 
choir, were still conducted in Latin. Luther now introduced 
a complete service in German, changing here and there the 
old form. To assist him in the musical alterations 
required, the Elector sent him two musicians from Torgau. 
With one of these in particular, John Walter, Luther 
worked with diligence, and continued afterwards on terms 
of friendly intercourse. He himself composed a few pieces 
for the work. 

Of these, as of the earlier regulations at Wittenberg, 
Luther published a formal account. It appeared at the 
beginning of the next year (1526), under the title of ' The 
German Mass and Order of Divine Worship at Witten- 
berg.' But he guarded himself in this publication, from 
the outset, against the new Service being construed into a law 
of necessary obligation, or made a means of disquieting the 
conscience. In this matter, as in others, he wished above 
all things that regard should be paid to the weak and simple 
brethren —to those who had still to be trained and built up 
into Christians. Nay, he had meant it for a people among 
whom, as he said, many were not Christians at all, but the 
majority stood and stared, for the mere sake of seeing 
something new, just as though a Christian Service were 
being performed among Turks and heathens. The first 
question with these was how to attract them publicly to a 
confession of belief and Christianity. He thought also, at 
this time, of another and, as he termed it, a true kind of 
Evangelical Service, for which, however, the people were not 
yet prepared. His idea in this was that all individuals 
who were Christians in earnest, aM were willing to confess 
the gospel, should enrol themse-ves by name, and meet 



CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 349 

together for prayer, for reading the Word of God, for 
administering the Sacraments, and exercising works of 
Christian piety. For an assembly of this kind, and for 
their worship of God, he contemplated no elaborate form of 
Liturgy, but, on the contrary, simply a ' short and proper ' 
means of ' directing all in common to the Word and 
j)rayer and charity,' and in addition thereto, a regular 
exercise of congregational discipline and a Christian care of 
the poor, after the example of the Apostles. But for the 
present, he said, he must resign this idea of a congregation 
simply from the want of proper persons to compose it. He 
would wait ' until Christians were found sufficiently earnest 
about the Word to offer themselves for the purpose, and 
adhere to it ; ' otherwise it might serve only to generate 
a ' spirit of faction,' if he attempted to carry it through 
by himself ; for the Germans, he said, were a wild people, 
and very difficult to deal with, unless extreme necessity 
compelled them. The Elector, however, readily assented to 
this project, and purposed to propose it as a model for other 
churches in his dominions. 

At this point, however, a wider field of action opened 
out, the details of which could not be comprehended at a 
single glance, and which seemed to require a higher care, 
and the guidance and support of higher powers and 
authorities. In many places, nothing as yet, or at all events 
nothing of a stahle and well-ordered kind, had been done 
towards a reconstruction of the Church and the satisfaction 
of spiritual requirements in an evangelical sense. There 
was no collective Church, and no ecclesiastical office existing 
by whose influence and authority reforms might have been 
made, and a new organisation established. This was a 
grievous state of need where, perhaps, the existing clergy 
and the majority or the flower of their congregations were 
already unanimous and decided in their confession of 
evangelical doctrine. And in a number of congregations, 
indeed, among the great mass of the country people, there 



**m 



350 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

prevailed to a peculiar degree, that want of understanding, 
of ripe thought, and of inward sympathy, which Luther 
noticed even among many of his Wittenbergers. The 
bishops, in their visitations in Saxony under the Elector 
Frederick, had been unable to check any longer the 
progress of the new teaching, and did not venture on any 
further interference. And yet this teaching, as Luther 
knew better than anyone, had not yet succeeded, in spite 
of all its popularity, in penetrating the souls of men. To 
a large extent, the masses seemed to be still stolid and in- 
different. Even among the clergy, many were so unstable, 
so obscure, and so incompetent, that they failed to make any 
progress with their congregations. There were even some 
among them who were ready, according to circumstances, 
to adopt either the old or the new Church usages. In some 
places the new practices were opposed as innovations, 
especially by various nobles, and by the priests, who were 
dependent on the nobles : if such opposition was to be 
broken, it could only be done by the authority and power 
of the local sovereign. Lastly, and apart from all this, the 
new Church system was threatened with imminent disturb- 
ance and dissolution from the insufficiency or misuse of the 
funds required for its support. The customary revenues 
were falling off ; payments were no longer made for private 
masses ; and many of the nobles, including even those who 
remained attached to the old system, began to secularise 
the property of the Church. ' Unless measures are taken,' 
said Luther, 'to secure a suitable disposition and proper 
maintenance for ministers and preachers, there will shortly 
be neither parsonages nor schools worth speaking of, and 
Divine Worship and the Word of God will come utterly to 
an end.' 

The first question was to establish the principles on 
which a new organisation of the Church should be based. 

The earlier opinions expressed by Luther, especially in 
his Address to the German Nobility, might have led one to 



CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 351 

expect that the new Church system conformably to his ideas 
would have to be built up, to use a modern expression, from 
below, that is to say, on the basis of the universal priest- 
hood of all baptized Christians, who should now therefore, 
after hearing and receiving the Word of the Gospel, have 
proceeded to organise and embody themselves into a new 
community. Luther had also, in that treatise, as we have 
seen, allotted certain duties to the civil authorities in regard 
even to ecclesiastical matters ; and it was now from profound 
and painful conviction that he confessed that the great bulk 
of the people were as yet not genuine Christians, but needed 
public means of attraction to draw them to Christianity. 
Later on we met with his idea of a ' German Mass,' involving 
a voluntary union and assembly of genuine Christians, as 
explained by him three years before in a sermon. There 
were elements here at least, one might have thought, suffi- 
cient to constitute an independent system of congregations. 
Shortly afterwards, in October 1526, a Hessian synod, 
convoked by the Landgrave Philip at Homberg, actually 
adopted the draft of a constitution, which provided that 
those Christians who acknowledged the Word of God should 
voluntarily enrol themselves as members of a Christian 
Evangelical Brotherhood or congregation, who should elect 
in assembly their pastors and bishops, and that the latter, 
together with other deputies, should constitute a general 
synod for the national Church. But Luther, true to his 
conviction, previously expressed, that there were not the 
men fitted for such an institution, stated now his opinion to 
Philip, that he had not the boldness to carry out such a 
heap of regulations, and that people were not as fit for them 
as those who sat and made the regulations imagined. 
Moreover he could not tolerate the idea that the mass of 
those who remained outside this community, and who were 
looked upon, according to the Homberg scheme, as heathens, 
should be left to their fate, without preachers of the Word, and 
above all, without either baptism or the Christian education 



352 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

of their children. Added to this, he adhered strenuously 
to his belief, which we have noticed long before, that 
certain duties with reference to religion and the Church 
were incumbent on the civil authorities, the princes and 
magistrates, in common with all the rest of Christendom. 
It was their duty, he declared in those earlier writings of 
his, to prohibit, by force if necessary, the proceedings of 
those priests who were hostile to the gospel. He now 
applied the idea and definition of external, idolatrous 
practices to the Papal system of public worship and the 
sacrifice of the mass. To suppress these practices, he 
said, was the duty of those authorities who watched over the 
external relations of life : such was his demand against the 
Catholics at Altenburg. On the other Hand, this province 
of external life and external regulations embraced also the 
material means required for the external maintenance of 
the Church. And it was only a step further for those 
authorities to forbid any public exposition of doctrines which 
they found to be at variance with the Word of God, and 
to appoint also preachers of that Word ; nay, to undertake, 
in short, the establishment and preservation of the consti- 
tution of the Church, so far as the same was external, and 
necessary, and incapable of being established by any other 
power. The Elector John himself had already, on August 16, 
1525, announced at his palace of Weimar to the assembled 
clergy of the district, ' that the gospel should be preached, 
pure and simple, without any additions by man.' 

Under such circumstances, and starting with such views, 
Luther now urged the Elector to take in hand a compre- 
hensive regulation of the Church. As soon as he had dis- 
charged his duties at the university and completed his new 
Church Service in German, he turned his efforts to a 
general ' Reform of parishes.' This, as he said in a letter 
at the end of September, was now the stumbling-block 
before him. On October 31, 1525, the anniversary of his 
ninety-five theses, he represented to the Elector that, now 



CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 353 

that the reorganisation of the university and the regulation 
of public worship had been completed, there still remained 
two points which demanded the attention and care of 
his Highness, as the supreme temporal authority in his 
country. One of these was the miserable condition of 
the parishes in general ; the other was the proposal that 
the Elector, as Luther had already advised him at Witten- 
berg, should institute an inspection also of the civil ad- 
ministration of his councillors and officials, about which 
there were everywhere complaints both in the towns and 
country districts. With regard to the first point, he went 
on to explain, on receiving a gracious reply from the Elector, 
that the people who wished to have an evangelical preacher 
should themselves be made to contribute the additional in- 
come required ; and he proposed that the country should 
be divided into four or five districts, each of which should 
be visited by two commissioners appointed by the prince. 
He then proceeded to consider the external maintenance 
of the parochial clergy, and the means necessary for that 
purpose." He suggested further that ministers advanced in 
years, or unfit to preach, but otherwise of pious life and 
conduct, should be instructed to read aloud, in person or 
by deputy, the Gospel, together with the Postills or short 
homilies. With regard to those parishes where the appoint- 
ment of an evangelical preacher was a matter of indifference 
or of actual repugnance, he expressed at present no opinion ; 
but in his later proposals he assumed the establishment of 
evangelical preachers throughout the country. He expresses 
his conviction that the Elector will give his services to God 
in these reforms of the Church, as a faithful instrument in 
His hands, * because,' as he says, ' your Highness is en- 
treated and demanded to do so by us, and by the pressing 
need itself, and, therefore, assuredly by God.' 

Eeadily as the Elector John listened to Luther*s words 
and exhortations, he found it difficult, nevertheless, to 
initiate at once so vast an undertaking as was imposed 

A A 



354 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

upon him. Luther was well aware, as he himself told 
John, that matters of importance might easily be delayed 
at court, ' through the overwhelming press of business ; ' 
and that princely households had much to do, and it was 
necessary to importune them perseveringly. He knew his 
prince— that with the best will possible, he was not ener- 
getic enough with those about him ; and among the latter 
he suspected that many were indifferent and selfish with 
regard to matters of religion and the Church. The task, 
however, that now lay before him, was even more difficult 
and involved than Luther himself had imagined when first 
shaping and propounding his idea. 

A whole year went by before the project was taken up 
comprehensively. Only in the district of Borna, in January 
1526, was an inspection of parishes effected by Spalatin 
and a civil official of the prince ; and another one was 
held during Lent in the Thuringian district of Tenneberg, 
in which Luther's friend M/yconius of Gotha, afterwards 
one of the most prominent Reformers in Thuringia, took 
an active part. Meantime, however, the clergy in general 
received directions from the Elector to perform public 
worship in the manner prescribed by Luther's ' German 
Mass.' 

In the course of the summer the development of the 
general affairs of the Empire enabled the desired co-opera- 
tion of the civil authorities in the work of Reformation to 
be established on a basis of law. And yet, just now, the 
situation, as regards the Evangelical cause, had become 
more critical than at any previous time since the Diet of 
Worms. For the Emperor Charles had terminated, by a 
brilliant victory, the war with France, which had compelled 
him to let his Edict remain dormant ; and the peace con- 
cluded with the captured King Francis, in January 1526, 
at Madrid, was designated by the two monarchs as being 
intended to enable them to take up their Christian arms in 
common for the expulsion of the infidels and the extirpation 



CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 355 

of the Lutheran and other heresies. The Emperor issued 
an admonition to certain princes of Germany, bidding 
them take measures accordingly, and a number of them 
held a conference together on the subject. Against the 
danger thus threatening, the Evangelical party formed the 
League of Torgau. But no sooner was King Francis at 
liberty and back in France, than he broke the peace so 
solemnly contracted. Pope Clement, to whom this peace 
had offered such a splendid prospect of purifying and 
uniting Christendom, set more store by his political in- 
terests and temporal possessions in Italy, which formed a 
subject of such jealous rivalry and contention between 
himself, the Emperor, and the King. Terrified at the over- 
whelming power of the Emperor, the Holy Father made use 
of his Divine credentials to absolve the French king from 
his oath, and himself concluded a warlike alliance with 
him against Charles, which went by the name of the ' Holy 
League.' Myconius remarked of this compact that ' what- 
ever Popes do must be called most holy, for so holy are 
they that even God, the Gospel, and all the world, must lie 
at their feet.' Meanwhile, the Turks from the East were 
advancing on Germany. Thus it came to pass that a Diet 
at Spires, which seemed originally to have been summoned 
for the final execution of the Edict of Worms, led to the 
Imperial Eecess of August 27, 1526, wherein it was de- 
clared that until the General, or at least National Council of 
the Church, which was prayed for, should be convoked, 
each State should, in all matters appertaining to the Edict 
of Worms, ' so live, rule, and bear itself as it thought it 
could answer it to God and the Emperor.' 

Luther now turned again, on November 22, 1526, to 
John, i not having laid for a long while any supplication 
before his Electoral Highness.' The peasants, he said, were 
so unruly, and so ungrateful for the Word of God, that he 
had almost a mind to let them go on living like pigs, without 
a preacher, only their poor young children, at any rate, must 



356 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

be cared for. He laid down in this letter some important 
principles concerning the duty of the civil power and the 
State. The prince, he declared, was the supreme guardian 
of the young, and of all who required his protection. All 
towns and villages that could afford the means, should be 
compelled to keep schools and preachers, just as they were 
compelled to pay taxes for bridges, roads, and other local 
requirements. In support of this demand, he appealed to 
the direct command of God, and to the universal state of 
destitution prevailing. If that duty were neglected, the 
country would be full of vagrant savages. With regard to 
the convents and other religious foundations, he stated that, 
as soon as the Papal yoke had been removed from the land, 
they would pass over to the prince as the supreme head ; 
and it would then become his duty, however onerous, to 
regulate such matters, since no one else would have the 
power to do so. He particularly warned the Elector not 
to allow the nobles to appropriate the property of the con- 
vents, ' as is talked of already, and as some of them are 
actually doing.' They were founded, he said, for the service 
of God : whatever was superfluous might be applied by the 
Elector to the exigencies of the state or the relief of the 
poor. To his friends Luther complained with grief and 
bitterness of some courtiers of the Elector, who after 
having always shut their ears to religion and the gospel, 
were now chuckling over the rich spoils in prospect, and 
laughing at evangelical liberty. 

The work now commenced in real earnest. The Elector 
had the necessary regulations prepared at Wittenberg, at 
a conference between his chancellor Briick, Luther, and 
others. In February 1527 visitors were appointed, and 
among them was Melancthon. They began their labours 
at once in the district to which Wittenberg belonged, but 
of their proceedings here nothing further is known. In 
July the first visitation on a large scale took place in 
Thuringia. 



CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 357 

Just at this time, however, Luther was overtaken by 
severe bodily suffering and also by troubles at home, while 
the visitation and the academical life at Wittenberg had to 
experience an interruption. 

Luther's first year of married life had been one of hap- 
piness. Symptoms of a physical disorder, the stone, had 
appeared, however, even then, and in after years became 
extremely painful and dangerous. 

On June 7, 1526, as he announced to his friend Kuhel, 
his ' dear Kate brought him, by the great mercy of God, a 
little Hans Luther,' — her firstborn. With joy and thank- 
fulness, as he says in another letter, they now reaped the 
fruit and blessings of married life, whereof the Pope and 
his creatures were not worthy. 

Amidst all his various labours in theology and for the 
Church, and in preparing for the visitation, he took his 
share in the cares of his household, laid out the garden 
attached to his quarters at the convent, had a well made, 
and ordered seeds from Nuremberg through his friend 
Link, and radishes from Erfurt. He wrote at the same 
time to Link for tools for turning, which he wished to prac- 
tise with his servant Wolf or "Wolfgang Sieberger, as the 
* Wittenberg barbarians ' were too much behind in the art ; 
and he was anxious, in case the world should no longer care 
to maintain him as a minister of the Word, to learn how to 
gain a livelihood by his handiwork. 

Early in January 1527 he was seized with a sudden rush 
of blood to the heart. It nearly proved fatal at the moment, 
but fortunately soon passed away. An attack of illness, 
accompanied by deep oppression and anxiety of mind, and 
the effects of which long remained, followed on July 6. On 
the morning of that day, being seized with anguish of the 
soul, he sent for his faithful friend and confessor Bugen- 
hagen, listened to his words of comfort from the Bible, and 
with persevering prayer commended himself and his beloved 
ones to God. At Bugenhagen's advice, he then went to a 



358 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

breakfast, to which the Elector's hereditary marshal, Hans 
Loser, had invited him. He ate little at the meal, but was 
as cheerful as possible to his companions. After it was 
over, he sought to refresh himself with conversation with 
Jonas in his garden, and invited him and his wife to spend 
the evening at his home. On then arrival, however, he 
complained of a rushing and singing noise, like the waves 
of the sea, in his left ear, and which afterwards shot through 
his head with intolerable pain, like a tremendous gust of 
wind. He wished to go to bed, but fainted away by the 
door of his bedroom, after calling aloud for water. Cold 
water having been poured upon him, he revived. He 
began to pray aloud, and talked earnestly of spiritual 
things, although a short swoon came over him in the 
interval. The physician Augustin Schurf, who was called 
in, ordered his body, now quite cold, to be warmed. 
Bugenhagen too was sent for again. Luther thanked 
the Lord for having vouchsafed to him the knowledge of 
His holy Name ; God's will be done, whether He would let 
him die, which would be a gain to himself, or allow him to 
live on still longer in the flesh, and work. He called his 
friends to witness that up to his end he was certain of 
having taught the truth according to the command of God. 
He assured his wife, with words of comfort, that in spite of 
all the gossip of the blind world she was his wife, and he 
exhorted her to rest solely on God's Word. He then 
asked, * Where is my darling little Hans ?,' The child 
smiled at his father, who commended him with his mother 
to the God who is the Father of the fatherless and judges 
the cause of the widow. He pointed to some silver cups 
which had been given him, and which he wished to 
leave his wife. * You know,' he added, ' we have nothing 
else.' After a profuse perspiration he grew better, and the 
next day he was able to get up to meals. He said after- 
wards that he thought he was dying, in the hands of his 
wife and his friends, but that the spiritual paroxysm which 



CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 359 

had preceded had been something far more difficult for 
him to bear. 

Luther, after recovering from this attack, still com- 
plained of weakness in the head, and his inward oppres- 
sion and spiritual anguish was renewed and became inten- 
sified. On August 2 he told Melancthon, who was then 
busy with his visitation in Thuringia, that he had been 
tossed about for more than a week in the agonies of death 
and hell, and that his limbs still trembled in consequence. 

Whilst he was still in this state of suffering, news came 
that the plague was approaching Wittenberg, nay, had 
actually broken out in the town. It is well known how 
this fearful scourge had repeatedly raged in Germany, and 
how ruinous it had been, from the panic which preceded 
and accompanied it. The university, from fear of the 
epidemic, was now removed to Jena. 

Luther resolved, however, together with Bugenhagen, 
whom he was assisting as preacher, to remain loyally with 
the congregation, who now more than ever required his 
spiritual aid ; although his Elector wrote in person to him 
saying, ' We should for many reasons, as well as for your own 
good, be loth to see you separated from the university. . . . 
Do us then the favour.' He wrote to a friend, 'We are 
not alone here ; but Christ, and your prayers, and the 
prayers of all the saints, together with the holy angels, are 
with us.' 

The plague had really broken out, though not with that 
violence which the universal panic would have led one to 
suppose. Luther soon counted eighteen corpses, which were 
buried near his house at the Elster Gate. The epidemic 
advanced from the Fishers' suburb into the centre of the 
town : here the first victim carried off by it, died almost in 
Luther's arms - the wife of the burgomaster Tilo Denes. 
To his friends elsewhere Luther sent comforting reports, 
and repressed all exaggerated accounts. His friend Hess 
at Breslau asked him < if it was befitting a Christian man 



gtp 



360 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

to fly when death threatened him.' Luther answered him 
in a public letter, setting forth the whole duty of Christians 
in this respect. Of the students, a few at any rate re- 
mained at Wittenberg. For these he now began a new 
course of lectures. 

Luther's spiritual sufferings continued to afflict him for 
several months, and until the close of the year. Though 
he had known them, he said, from his youth, he could 
never have expected that they would prove so severe. He 
found them very similar to those attacks and struggles 
which he had had to endure in early life. The invasion of 
the plague, and the parting from all his intimate friends 
except Bugenhagen, must have contributed to increase 
them. 

He was just now deeply shocked and agitated by the 
news of the death of a faithful companion in the faith, the 
Bavarian minister Leonard Kaser or Kaiser, who was 
publicly burnt on August 16, 1527, in the town of 
Scherding. Luther broke out, as he had done after Henry 
of Ziitphen's martyrdom, into a lamentation of his own 
unworthiness compared with such heroes. He published 
an account of Leonard and his end, which had been sent 
him by Michael Stiefel, adding a preface and conclusion of 
his own. About the same time he composed a consolatory 
tract for the Evangelical congregation at Halle-on-the- 
Saale, whose minister Winkler had been murdered in the 
previous April. 

In the autumn a new controversial treatise was 
published against him by Erasmus, which he rightly 
described as a product of. snakes ; and he now stood in 
the midst of the contest between Zwingli and Oecolam- 
padius. He exclaimed once in a letter to Jonas, ' that 
Erasmus and " the Sacramentarians (Zwingli and his 
friends) could only for a, quarter of an hour know the 
misery of my heart. I am certain that they would then 
honestly be converted. Now my enemies live, and are 



CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 361 

mighty, and heap sorrow on sorrow upon me, whom God 
has already crushed to the earth.' 

The pestilence soon reached his friends. The wife of 
the physician Schurf, who was then living in the same 
house with him, was attacked by it, and only recovered 
slowly towards the beginning of November. At the 
parsonage the wife of the chaplain or deacon George 
Borer succumbed to it on November 2, whereupon Luther 
took Bugenhagen and his family from the panic-stricken 
house into his own dwelling. But soon after dangerous 
symptoms showed themselves with a friend, Margaret 
Mocha, who was then staying with Luther's family, and 
she was actually ill unto death. His own wife was then 
near her confinement. Luther was the more concerned 
about her, as Borer's wife, when in the same condition, 
had sickened and died. But Frau Luther remained, as he 
says, firm in the faith, and retained her health. Finally, 
towards the end of October his little son Hans fell ill, and 
for twelve whole days would not eat. When the anniversary 
of the ninety-five theses came round again, Luther wrote 
to Amsdorf telling him of these troubles and anxieties, and 
concluded with the words : ' So now there are struggles 
without and terror within. . . It is a comfort which we 
must set against the malice of Satan, that we have 
the Word of God, whereby to save the souls of the faithful, 
even though the devil devour their bodies. . . Pray for us, 
that we may endure bravely the hand of the Lord, and 
overcome the power and craft of the devil, whether it be 
through death or life. Amen. Wittenberg: All Saints' 
Day, the tenth anniversary of the death-blow to indul- 
gences, in thankful remembrance whereof we are now 
drinking a toast.' 

A short time afterwards Luther was able to send Jonas 
somewhat better news about the sickness at home, though 
he was still sighing with deep inward oppression; 'I suffer,' 
he said, ' the wrath of God, because I have sinned in His 



362 



RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 



sight. Pope, Emperor, princes, bishops, and all the world 
hate me, and, as if that were not enough, my brethren too 
(he means the Sacramentarians) must needs afflict me. 
My sins, death, Satan with all his angels— all rage un- 




Fig. 36.— Luther. 
(From a Portrait by Cranach in 1528, at Berlin.) 

ceasingly; and what could comfort me if Christ were to 
forsake me, for Whose sake they hate me ? But He will 
never forsake the poor sinner.' Then follow the words 
above quoted about Erasmus and the Sacramentarians. 



CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LLFE. 563 

Towards the middle of December the plague gradually 
abated. Luther writes from home on the tenth of that 
month : ' My little boy is well and happy again. Schurf 's 
wife has recovered, Margaret has escaped death in a mar- 




Fig. 37. — Luther's Wife. 
(From a Portrait by Cranach in 1528, at Berlin.) 

vellous manner. We have offered up five pigs, which 
have died, on behalf of the sick.' And on his return home 
this day to dinner from his lecture, his wife was safely 
delivered of a little daughter, who received the name of 
Elizabeth. 



364 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

To h-is own inward sufferings Luther rose superior by 
the strengthening power of the conviction that even in 
these his Lord and Saviour was with him, and that God 
had sent them for his own good and that of others ; that 
is to say, for his own discipline and humbling. He applied 
to himself the words of St. Paul, ' As dying, and behold we 
live ; ' nay, he wished not to be freed of his burden, should 
his God and Saviour be glorified thereby. 

Luther's famous hymn, £m' feste Burg ist unser Gott, 
appeared for the first time, as has been recently proved, in 
a little hymn-book, about the beginning of the following 
year. We can see in it indeed a proof how anxious was 
that time for Luther. It corresponds with his words, 
already quoted, on the anniversary of the Reformation. 

With the cessation of the pestilence and the return of 
his friends, the new year seems to have brought him also 
a salutary change in his physical condition ; for his suffer- 
ings, which were caused by impeded circulation, became 
sensibly diminished. 

Since the outbreak, and during the continuance of the 
plague, the work of Church visitation had been suspended. 
Melancthon, however, who had followed the university to 
Jena, was commissioned meanwhile to prepare provisionally 
some regulations and instructions for further action in 
this matter, and in August Luther received the articles 
which he had drafted for his examination and approval. 

These articles or instructions comprised the funda- 
mental principles of Evangelical doctrine, as they were 
henceforth to be accepted by the congregations. They 
were drawn up with especial regard to the ' rough common 
man,' who too often seemed deficient in the first rudiments 
of Christian faith and life, and with regard also to many 
of those confessing the new teaching, who, as Melancthon 
perceived, were not unfairly accused of allowing the word 
of saving faith to be made a ' cloak of maliciousness,' and 
who filled their sermons rather with attacks against the 



CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 365 

Pope than with words of edifying purport. Melancthon 
said on this point, ' those who fancy they have conquered 
the Pope, have not really conquered the Pope.' And whilst 
teaching that those who were troubled about their sins had 
only to have faith in their forgiveness for the merits of 
Christ, to be justified in the sight of God and to find com- 
fort and peace, nevertheless, he would have the people 
earnestly and specially reminded that this faith could not 
exist without true repentance and the fear of God ; that 
such comfort could only be felt where such fear was pre- 
sent, and that to achieve this end God's law, with its 
demands and threats of punishment, would effectually 
operate upon the soul. 

Luther himself had taught very explicitly, and in ac- 
cordance with his own experience of life, that the faith 
which saves through God's joyful message of grace could 
only arise in a heart already bowed and humbled by the 
law of God, and, having arisen, was bound to employ itself 
actively in fruits of repentance ; although, in stating this 
doctrine, he had not perhaps so equally adjusted the condi- 
tions, as Melancthon had here done. An outcry, however, 
now arose from among the Eomanists, that Melancthon no 
longer ventured to uphold the Lutheran doctrine ; of course 
it suited their interests to fling a stone in this manner at 
Luther and his teaching. ' - But what was far more im- 
portant, an attack was raised against Melancthon from the 
circle of his immediate friends. Agricola of Eisleben, for in- 
stance, would not hear of a repentance growing out of such 
impressions produced by the Law and the fear of punish- 
ment. The conversion of the sinner, he declared, must 
proceed solely and entirely from the comforting knowledge 
of God's love and grace, as revealed in His message to 
man : thence, further, and thence alone, came the proper 
fear of God, a fear, not of His punishment, but of Himself. 
This distinction he had failed to find in Melancthon's In- 
structions. It was the first time that a dogmatic dispute 



366 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

threatened to break out among those who had hitherto stood 
really united on the common ground of Lutheran doctrine. 

Luther, on the contrary, approved Melancthon's draft, 
and found little to alter in it. What his opponents said 
did not disturb him ; he quieted the doubts of the Elector 
on that score. Whoever undertook anything in God's cause, 
he said, must leave the devil his tongue to babble and ieft 
lies against it. He was particularly pleased that Melanc- 
thon had ' set forth all in such a simple manner for the 
common people.' Fine distinctions and niceties of doctrine 
were out of place in such a work. Even Agricola, who wished 
to be more Lutheran than Luther himself, was silenced. 

Melancthon's work, after having been subjected by the 
Elector to full scrutiny and criticism in several quarter*, 
was published by his command in March 1528, with a 
preface written by Luther, as ' Instructions of the Visitors 
to the parish priests in the Electorate of Saxony.' In this 
preface Luther pointed out how important and necessary 
for the Church was such a supervision and visitation. He 
explained, as the reason why the Elector undertook this 
office and sent out visitors, that since the bishops and 
archbishops had proved faithless to their duty, no one else 
had been found whose special business it was, or who had 
any orders to attend to such matters. Accordingly, the 
local sovereign, as the temporal authority ordained by God, 
had been requested to render this service to the gospel, 
out of Christian charity, since, in his capacity as civil ruler, 
he was under no obligation to do so. In like manner, 
Luther afterwards described the Evangelical sovereigns as 
' Makeshift-bishops ' (Nothbischofe). At the same time the 
instructions for visitation introduced now in the smaller 
districts the office of superintendent as one of permanent 
supervision. 

In the course of the summer preparations were made 
for a visitation on a large scale, embracing the whole 
country. The original intention had been to deal, by means 



CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 367 

of one commission, with the various districts in rotation. 
Such a course would have necessarily entailed, as was 
admitted, much delay and other inconveniences. A more 
comprehensive method was accordingly adopted, of letting 
different commissions work simultaneously in the different 
districts. Each of these commissions consisted of a theo- 
logian and a few laymen, jurists, and councillors of state, 
or other officials. Luther was appointed head of the commis- 
sion for the Electoral district. The work was commenced 
earlier in some districts than in others. Luther's com- 
mission was the first to begin, on October 22, and apparently 
in the diocese of Wittenberg. 

Luther had already, since May 12, voluntarily under- 
taken a new and onerous labour. Bugenhagen had left 
Wittenberg that day for the town of Brunswick, where, at 
the desire of the local magistracy, he carried out the work 
of reform in the Church, until his departure in October for 
the same purpose to Hamburg, where he remained until 
the following June. Luther undertook his pastoral duties 
hi his absence, and preached regularly three or four times in 
the week. Nevertheless, he took his share also in the work 
of visitation ; the district assigned to him did not take him 
very far away from Wittenberg. He remained there, 
actively engaged in this work, during the following months, 
and with some few intervals, up to the spring. From the 
end of January 1529 he again suffered for some weeks from 
giddiness and a rushing noise in his head ; he knew not 
whether it was exhaustion or the buffeting of Satan, and 
entreated his friends for their prayers on his behalf, that 
he might continue steadfast in the faith. 

The shortcomings and requirements brought to light by 
the visitation corresponded to what Luther had expected. 
In his own district the state of things was compara- 
tively favourable ; happily, a third of the parishes had 
the Elector for their patron, and in the towns the magis- 
trates had, to some. extent at least, fulfilled their duties 



- 



368 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

satisfactorily. The clergy, for the most part, were good 
enough for the slender demands with which, under existing 
circumstances, their parishioners had to be content. But 
things were worse in many other parts of the country. A 
gross example of the rude ignorance then prevailing, not 
only among the country people, but even among the clergy, 
was found in a village near Torgau, where the old priest 
was hardly able to repeat the Lord's Prayer and the Creed, 
but was in high reputation far and near as an exorcist, 
and did a brisk business in that line. Priests had frequently 
to be ejected for gross immorality, drunkenness, irregular 
marriages, and such like offences ; many of them had to 
be forbidden to keep beer-houses, and otherwise to practise 
worldly callings. On the other hand, we hear of scarcely 
any priests so addicted to the Eomish system as to put diffi- 
culties in the way of the visitors. Poverty and destitution, 
so Luther reports, were found everywhere. The worst 
feature was the primitive ignorance of the common people, 
not only in the country but partly also in the towns. We 
are told of one place where the peasants did not know a 
single prayer ; and of another, where they refused to learn 
the Lord's Prayer, because it was too long. Village schools 
were universally rare. The visitors had to be satisfied if 
the children were taught the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, 
and the Ten Commandments by the clerk. A knowledge 
of these at least was required for admission to the Com- 
munion. 

Luther in the course of his visitations mixed freely with 
the people, in the practical, energetic, and hearty manner so 
peculiar to himself. 

For the clergy, who needed a model for their preaching, 
and for the congregations to whom their pastors, owing to 
their own incompetence, had to preach the sermons of 
others, nothing more suitable for this purpose could be 
offered than Luther's Church-Postills. Its use, where 
necessary, was recommended. It had shortly before been 



CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 369 

completed ; that is to say, after Luther in 1525 had finished 
the portion for the winter half-year, his friend Koth, of 
Zwickau, brought out in 1527 a complete edition of sermons 
for the Sundays of the summer half-year, and all the feast- 
days and holidays, compiled from printed copies and manu- 
scripts of detached sermons. 

The most urgent task, however, that Luther now felt 
himself bound to perform, was the compilation of a 
Catechism suitable for the people, and, above all, for the 
young. Four years before, he had endeavoured to encourage 
friends to write one. His ' German Mass ' of 1526 said : 
' The first thing wanted for German public worship is a 
rough, simple, good Catechism ; ' and further on in that 
treatise he declared that he knew of no better way of 
imparting such Christian instruction, than by means of 
the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, 
for they summed up, briefly and simply, almost all that 
was necessary for a Christian to know. 

He now took in hand at once, early in 1529, and amidst 
all the business of the visitations, a larger work, which was 
intended to instruct the clergy how to understand and explain 
those three main articles of the faith, and also the doctrines 
of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. This work is his so- 
called ' Greater Catechism,' originally entitled simply the 
' German Catechism.' 

Shortly afterwards followed the 'Little Catechism,' — 
called also the ' Enchiridion ' — which contains in an 
abbreviated form, adapted to children and simple under- 
standings, the contents of his larger work, set out here in 
the form of question and answer. ' I have been induced 
and compelled,' says Luther in his introduction, ' to com- 
press this Catechism, or Christian teaching, into this 
modest and simple form, by the wretched and lamentable 
state of spiritual destitution which I have recently in my 
visitations found to prevail among the people. God help 
me ! how much misery have I seen ! The common folk, 

B B 



37o RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

especially the villagers, know absolutely nothing of Chris- 
tian doctrine, and alas, many of the parish priests are 
almost too ignorant or incapable to teach them J ' He en- 
treats therefore his brother clergymen to take pity on the 
people, to assist in bringing home the Catechism to them, 
and more particularly to the young ; and to this end, if no 
better way commended itself, to take these forms before 
them, and explain them word by word. 

For the use of the pastors, he added to this Catechism a 
short tract on Marriage, and in the second edition, which fol- 
lowed immediately after, he subjoined a reprint of his treatise 
on Baptism, which he had published three years before. 

The Catechism met the requirements of simple mmds 
and of a Christian's ordinary daily life, by providing also 
forms of prayer for rising, going to bed, and eating, and 
lastly a manual for households, with Scriptural texts for all 
classes. This ends with the words — 

Let each his lesson learn to spell, 
And then his house will prosper well. 

To the clergy, in particular, Luther addressed himself, 
that they might imbue the people in this manner with 
Christian truth. But he wished also, as he said, to instruct 
every head of a household how to ' set forth that truth 
simply and clearly to his servants,' and teach them to pray, 
and to thank God for His blessings. 

The contents of the Catechism were carefully confined 
to the highest, simplest, and thoroughly practical truths of 
Christian teaching, without any trace or feature of polemics. 
In its composition, as for instance, in his exposition of 
the Lord's Prayer, and in his small prayers above men- 
tioned, he availed himself of old materials. How excellently 
this Catechism, with its originality and clearness, its depth 
and simplicity, responded to the wants not only of his own 
time, but of after generations, has been proved by its having 
remained in use for centuries, and amid so many different 



CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 371 

ranks of life and such various degrees of culture. Except 
his translation of the Bible, this little book of Luther is the 
most important and practically useful legacy which he has 
bequeathed to his people. 

The visitations were over when -the two Catechisms ap- 
peared, although they had not yet been held in all the 
parishes. Events of another kind and dangers threatening 
elsewhere now demanded the first attention of the Elector 
and the Eeformers. 



8 '• '£ 



372 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTEE III. 

ERASMUS AND HENRY VIII. — CONTROVERSY WITH ZWINGLI AND 
HIS FOLLOWERS, UP TO 1628. 

Luther's controversy with Erasmus, the most important of 
the champions of Catholic Churchdom, had terminated, it 
will be remembered, so far as Luther was concerned, with 
his treatise ' On the Bondage of the Will.' To the new 
tract which Erasmus published against him, in two parts, 
in 1526 and 1527, and which, though insignificant in sub- 
stance, was violent and insulting enough in tone, Luther 
made no reply. Erasmus, nevertheless, to the pleasure of 
himself and his patrons in high places, continued his viru- 
lent attacks on the Eeformation, which was bringing ruin, 
he declared, on the noble arts and letters, and carrying 
anarchy into the Church, while he himself, in his own 
mediating manner, and in the sense and with the help of 
the temporal rulers, was doing his best to promote certain 
reforms in the Church, within the pale of the ancient system, 
and on its proper hierarchical basis. On what principles, 
however, that basis was established, and the Divine rights 
of the hierarchy reposed, he wisely abstained, now as he 
had done before, from explaining. In Luther's eyes he was 
merely a refined Epicurean, who had inward doubts about 
religion and Christianity, and treated both with disdain. 

Luther's letter to Henry VIII. , which we have noticed in 
an earlier chapter, took a long time before it reached the 
King, and before the latter could send an answer to it. 
The writing of that answer must have given his royal 
adversary much satisfaction ; it turned out a good deal 



ERASMUS, HENRY VIIL, AND THE ZWINGLIANS. 373 

coarser than even the one from Duke George ; Luther's 
marriage in particular afforded Henry an occasion for 
insulting language. Emser published it in German early 
in 1527, adding some vituperations and falsehoods of his 
own. Luther's only object in replying was to dissipate 
any impression that he had ever declared to Henry his 
readiness to recant. His reply consisted of a few but 
powerfully written pages. He pointed out that in his 
letter he had expressly excepted his doctrines from any 
offer of retractation ; upon these doctrines he took his stand, 
let kings and the devil do their worst. Beyond these he. 
had nothing which so encouraged his heart, and gave him 
such strength and joy. To the personal insults and impu- 
tations of sensuality and so forth, which Henry VIII. , this 
man of unbridled passions, had poured upon him, he replied 
that he was well aware that, in regard to his personal life, 
he was a poor sinner, and that he was glad his enemies were 
all saints and angels. He added, however, that though he 
knew himself to be a sinner before God and his dear 
Christian brethren, he wished at the same time to be 
virtuous before the world, and that virtuous he was — so 
much so that his enemies were not worthy to unloose the 
latchet of his shoes. With regard to his letter to Henry he 
acknowledged that in this, as in his letter to Duke George, 
and others, he had been tempted to make a foolish trial of 
humility. ' I am a fool, and remain a fool, for putting faith 
so lightly in others/ 

Luther reverts in this reply to enemies of a different 
sort, who make his heart still heavier. These are to him 
his ' tender children,' his ' little brothers,' his ' golden little 
friends, the spirits of faction and the fanatics,' who would 
not have known anything worth knowing either of Christ 
or of the gospel, if Luther had not previously written about 
it. He alluded, in particular, to the new ' Sacramentarians,' 
and to Zwingli their leader. 

Although this is the first time that Zwingli makes his 



374 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

appearance in the history of Luther, and was never treated 
by him otherwise than as a new offshoot of fanaticism, it 
is important, in order to understand and appreciate him 
aright, to hear in mind the fact that, himself only a few 
months younger than Luther, he had been working since 

1519 among the community at Zurich as an independent 
and progressive Evangelical Eeformer, and had extended 
his active influence over Switzerland, however little noticed 
he had been at "Wittenberg. 

His career hitherto had been made easier for him than 
was the case with Luther. The Grand Council of the city 
of Zurich not only afforded him their protection, but in 

1520 decreed full liberty to preach the Gospels and Epistles 
of the Apostles in the sense he ascribed to them, and in 
1523 formally declared their acceptance of his doctrines, 
and abolished all idolatrous practices. No Eecess of a 
Diet was here to disturb or threaten him. The Pope, for 
political reasons, behaved with unwonted caution and discre- 
tion : he delayed in this case for several years the ban of ex- 
communication which he had pronounced so readily against 
Luther. Even Hadrian, the man of firm character, to whom 
Luther was an object of abhorrence, had only gracious and 
insinuating words for the Zurich Eeformer. The Zurich 
authorities, at the same time, acting in concert with Zwingli, 
adopted severe measures against any intrusion of fanatics 
and Anabaptists, nor did the entire population of the small 
republic contain any great number of persons so thoroughly 
neglected, and so difficult of influence by preachers, as was 
the case with the country people in Germany. Well might 
Zwingli press forward with a lighter heart than Luther's in 
his work. 

Personally, moreover, he had never passed through such 
severe inward struggles as Luther, nor had ever wrestled 
with such spiritual anguish and distress. The thought of 
reconciliation with God, and the comforting of conscience by 
the assurance of His forgiving mercy, were not with Zwingli, 



ERASMUS, HENRY VIII., AND THE ZWINGLIANS. 375 

as with Luther, the centre and focus of his aspirations and 
religious interests. He knew not that fervour and intense- 




M,HlILDRICUS £jJINGLlllS, 

UFOKMATOH E.T PA5TOR_ 

X^CLfc S 1/L T 1 GURJNA.., 

Obnf a? ss J u &\t jj octob. A.tati5 4&+ 

Fig. 38.— Zwingli. (From an old engraving.) 

ness which made Luther grasp at every means for bringing 
home God's grace to congregations of believers, or to each 



376 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

individual Christian according to his spiritual need. His 
view, from the very first, extended rather to the totality of 
religious truth, as revealed by God in Scripture, but sadly 
disfigured in the creeds of the Church by man's additions and 
misinterpretations ; and he aimed, far more than Luther, 
at a reconstruction of moral, and especially of communal 
life, in conformity with what the Word of God appeared to 
demand. It was easier for him, therefore, to break with 
the past : critical scruples against tradition did not weigh 
so heavily on his conscience. His critical faculties, no 
doubt, were sharpened by the humanistic culture he had 
acquired. Compared with Luther's peculiar meditative 
mood, and his half- choleric, half -melancholic temperament, 
Zwingli evinced, in all his conduct and demeanour, a more 
clear and sober intelligence, and a far calmer and more 
easy disposition. His practical policy and conduct was 
allied with a tendency to judicial severity, in contrast to 
the free spirit which animated Luther. So rigorous and 
narrow-minded was his zeal against the toleration of images, 
that the Wittenberg theologians could not help detecting in 
him a spirit akin to that of Carlstadt and the other fanatics. 
In renouncing the Catholic doctrine of transubstantia- 
tion and the idea of a sacrifice, Zwingli had rejected alto- 
gether the supposition of a Eeal Presence of Christ's 
Body at the Sacrament ; nay, as he declared later on. he 
had never truly believed in it. He quoted the words of 
Christ, 'The flesh profiteth nothing' (St. John vi. 63). 
He would understand by the Sacrament simply a spiritual 
feedhig of the faithful, who, by the Word of God and His 
Spirit, are enabled to enjoy in faith the salvation purchased 
by the death of Christ. He saw no particular necessity for 
offering this salvation to them by an administration of 
Christ's Body, which had been given for them, through the 
visible medium of the bread ; nor did he see how by so 
doing their faith could be strengthened. In Luther's view 
the practical significance of the Peal Presence lay in this, 



ERASMUS, HENRY VIII., AND THE ZWINGLIANS. 377 

that in this special manner the Christian, who felt his need 
of salvation, was assured, and became a partaker, of for- 
giveness and communion with his Saviour. With Zwingli, 
such a visible communication of the Divine gift of salva- 
tion was opposed to his conception of God and the Divine 
Nature ; just as this conception was opposed to that kind of 
union of the Divine and human nature in Christ Himself, 
by virtue of which, according to Luther, Christ was able 
and willing to be actually present everywhere in the Sacra- 
ment with His human, transfigured body. Inasmuch, said 
Zwingli, as this spiritual feeding took place in faith every- 
where, and not only at the Sacrament, it was no essential 
part of the Sacrament ; the real essence whereof consisted 
in this, that the faithful here confessed by that act their 
common belief in the commemoration of Christ's death, 
and, as members of His Body, pledged themselves to such 
belief: he called the Sacrament the symbol of a pledge. 
Luther himself, as we have seen, had taught from the first 
that the Sacrament or Communion should represent the 
union of Christians with the spiritual Body, or their com- 
munion of the spirit, of faith, and of love. But with him 
this communion was a secondary condition ; it was the feed- 
ing on the Body of Christ Himself which was to promote 
such communion with one another and, above all, with Christ. 
Zwingli explained the word 'is ' of our Lord, in His institution 
of the Sacrament, to mean 'signifies.' Oecolampadius pre- 
ferred the explanation that the bread was not the Body in the 
proper sense of the word, but a symbol of the Body. In 
point of fact, this was a distinction without a difference. 

Such, briefly stated, was the doctrinal controversy in 
which the two Beformers, the German and the Swiss, now 
engaged, and which had first brought them into contact. 

About the same time Luther made the acquaintance of 
another opponent of his doctrine of the Lord's Supper, the 
Silesian Kaspar Schwenkfeld. He also, like his friend 
Valentin Krautwald, denied the Beal Presence ; but sought 



3/8 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CErC/RcH. 

to interpret the words of institution in yet another manner, 
connecting with his theory of their meaning deeper mystical 
ideas of the means of salvation in general, which at least in 
some quarters and to a small extent, have still survived. 

In all of them, however — in Carlstadt, Zwingli, Schwenk- 
feld, and the rest —Luther, as he wrote to his friends at 
Eeutlingen, perceived only one and the same puffed up, car- 
nal mind, twisting about and struggling, to avoid having 
to remain subject to the Word of God. 

His first public declaration against Zwingli' s new doc- 
trine was in 1526, in his preface to the Syngramma or 
treatise of the fourteen Swabian ministers, written, as his 
opening words express it, ' against the new fanatics, who put 
forth novel dreams about the Sacrament, and confuse the 
world.' 

Blow upon blow followed in the battle thus commenced. 
While Oecolampadius was busy composing a reply to the 
treatise and its preface, by which he in particular had 
been assailed, Luther proceeded to follow up the attack. 
The same year he published a ' Sermon on the Sacrament 
of the Body and Blood of Christ, against the Fanatics ; ' 
and in the following spring a larger work with the title 
<A Proof that Christ's Words of Institution, "This is My 
Body," &c, still stand, against the Fanatics.' He con- 
cludes the latter with the wish, ' God grant that they 
may be converted to the truth ; if not, that they may twist 
cords of vanity wherewith to catch themselves, and fall 
into my hands.' Just then, however, Zwingli had written 
against him, and to him, and the missive arrived at the 
moment when he had issued the last-named work. Zwingli 
wrote in Latin, entitling his tract, ' A Friendly Exposition 
of the matter concerning the Sacrament,' and sent it with 
a letter to Luther. These were followed almost imme- 
diately by a reply, in German, to Luther's Sermon, under 
the title of ' A Friendly Criticism of the Sermon of the 
Excellent Martin Luther against the Fanatics.' Zwingli 



ERASMUS, HENRY VIII. , AND THE ZWINGLIANS. 379 

had scarcely had Luther's last written work in his hands 
when he replied to it in a new treatise : ' A proof that Christ's 
words, " This is My Body which is given for you," will for all 
ages retain the ancient and only meaning, and that Martin 
Luther in his last book has neither taught nor proved his 
own and the Pope's meaning ; ' the title thus indicating 
that Luther's and the Pope's meaning were one and the 
same. Oecolampadius at the same time published ' A fair 
Eeply ' to Luther's work. These were the writings of 
the Sacramentarians which reached Luther during the 
troublous time of the plague at Wittenberg, and filled him 
with the pain of which we heard him then complain. 

Zwingii's doctrine, from the time of its first announce- 
ment, had seemed to Luther nothing but a visionary — nay, 
' devilish ' perversion of the truth and the Word of God. 
The progress of the controversy, so far from healing the 
difference between them, tended only to sharpen and 
intensify it. From the first hour the two Keformers met 
in opposition, the gulf was already fixed which henceforth 
divided Evangelical Protestantism into two separate Con- 
fessions and Church communities. 

This is not the place to pass judgment on the matter 
in controversy, or to trace minutely the leading points of 
dogma involved in the dispute. Eegarding it, however, by 
the light 01 history, it must be acknowledged and avowed 
that this was no mere passionate quarrel about words alone 
or propositions of dogmatic and metaphysical interest, but 
devoid of any religious importance. Even in the attempts 
to establish points of detail, reference was constantly made, 
on both sides, to deep questions and views of Christian 
religion. 

Not only did Zwingli and Oecolampadius, in their anti- 
literal and figurative interpretation of the words of institu- 
tion, endeavour to support it by Scriptural analogies, more 
or less appropriate, but in the practical objections they raised, 
which Luth2r treated as over-curious subtleties of human 



380 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

reason, they were actuated in reality by motives of a religious 
character. In their view, a pure and reverential conception 
of God was inconsistent with the idea of such an offertory of 
Divine gifts, consisting of material elements and for mere 
bodily nourishment. Not indeed that Luther, in accepting 
the words in their literal sense, had become a slave to the 
letter, in contradiction to the free and lofty spirit in which 
he had elsewhere accepted the contents of Holy Scripture. 
The question with him here was about a word of unique 
importance — a word used by Christ on the threshold, so to 
speak, of His death for our redemption ; and we have already 
remarked what value he attached to the actual bodily pre- 
sence indicated by that word, as assuring and imparting 
salvation to those who partook at His table in faith. 
No analogies to the contrary, derived from other figurative 
expressions, would content him, though of course he never 
denied that such expressions could and did occur through- 
out the Bible. The text, ' The flesh profiteth nothing,' on 
which Zwingli primarily relied, Luther understood as re- 
ferring not to the flesh of Christ, but to the carnal mind of 
man ; though he was careful to declare that it was not the 
fleshly presence, as such, of our Saviour which gave the 
Sacrament its value and importance ; nor must the feed- 
ing of the communicants be a mere bodily feeding, but 
that the word and promise of Christ were there present, 
and that faith alone in that word and promise could make 
the feeding bring salvation. God's glory was therein 
exalted to the highest, that from His pitying love he made 
Himself equal with the lowest. 

In the doctrine concerning the person of the Redeemer, 
a point to which the controversy further led, the Church had 
hitherto affirmed simply a union of the Divine and human 
natures, each retaining the attributes and qualities peculiar 
to itself. Luther wished to see in the Man Jesus, the 
Divine nature, which stooped to share humanity, conceived 
and realised with deeper and more active fervour. As 



ERASMUS, HENRY VIII., AND THE ZWINGLIANS. 381 

the Son of God He died for us, and as the Son of Man 
He was exalted, with His body, to sit at the right hand of 
God, which is not limited to any place, and is at once 
nowhere and everywhere. It is true, Luther does not 
proceed to explain how this body is still a human body, or 
indeed a body at all. Zwingli, in keeping the two natures 
distinct, wished to preserve the sublimity of his God and 
the genuine humanity of the Kedeemer ; but in so doing, 
he ended by making the two natures run parallel, so to 
speak, in a mere stiff, dogmatic formulary, and by an arti- 
ficial interpretation and analysis of the words of Scripture 
touching the One Jesus, the Son of God and man. 

The manner, however, in which this controversy was 
conducted on both sides betrays an utter failure on the 
part of either combatant to apprehend and do justice to 
the religious and Christian motives, which, with all their 
antagonism, never ceased to animate the opposite party. 
Luther's attitude towards Zwingli we have already noticed. 
We have seen how his zeal, in particular, prompted him too 
often to see in the conduct of individual opponents simply 
and solely the dominating influence of that spirit, from 
which certain pernicious tendencies, according to his own 
convictions, proceeded and had to be combated. Thus it 
was in this instance. It was all visionary nonsense, nay, 
sheer devilry, and be attacked it in language of proportionate 
violence. From Zwingli a different attitude was to be ex- 
pected, from the amicable titles of his treatises and the 
personal correspondence with Luther which he himself 
invited. He adopted here for the most part, as in other 
matters, a calm and courteous tone, and exercised a power 
of self-restraint to which Luther was a stranger. But with 
a lofty mien, though in the same tone, he rejected Luther's 
propositions, as the fruit of ludicrous obstinacy and 
narrowness of mind, nay, as a retrograde step into Popery. 
His letter, moreover, embittered the contest by importing 
into it extraneous matter of reproach, such as, in particular, 



382 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

Luther's conduct in the Peasants' War. Luther had reason 
to say of him, ' He rages against me, and threatens me 
with the utmost moderation and modesty.' Zwingli's later 
replies evince a straightforwardness we miss in the earlier 
ones, hut they are marred by much rudeness and coarseness 
of language, and display throughout a lofty self-consciousness 
and a triumphant assurance of victory. 

Luther, after reading the last-mentioned treatises of 
Zwingli and Oecolampadius, resolved to publish one answer 
more, the last ; for Satan, he said, must not be suffered to 
hinder him further in the prosecution of other and more 
important matters. At this time he was particularly anxious 
to complete his translation of the Bible, being now hard at 
work with the books of the Prophets. His answer to 
Zwingli grew ultimately into the most exhaustive of all his 
contributions to the dispute. It appeared in March 1528 
under the title of ' Confession concerning the Lord's Supper.' 
He went over once more all the most important questions 
and arguments which had formed the subject of contention, 
expounded his ideas more fully on the Person and Presence 
of Christ, and explained calmly and impressively the passages 
of Scripture relating thereto. He concluded with a short 
summary of his own confession of Christian faith, that men 
might know, both then and after his death, how carefully 
and diligently he had thought over everything, and that 
future teachers of error might not pretend that Luther would 
have taught many things otherwise at another time and 
after further reflection. 

Zwingli and Oecolampadius hastened at once to prepare 
new pamphlets in reply, and to publish them with a dedi- 
cation to the Elector John and the Landgrave Philip. But 
Luther adhered to his resolve. He let them have the last 
word, as he had done with Erasmus. They had not con- 
tributed anything new to the dispute. 

While Luther was writing his last treatise against the 
Sacramentarians, he found himself obliged to issue a fresh 



ERASMUS, HENRY VII 7., AND THE ZWINGLIANS. 3S3 

protest against the Anabaptists. This was a tract en- 
titled ' On Anabaptism ; to two pastors.' But while de- 
nouncing these sectaries, he protested strongly against the 
manner in which the civil authorities were dealing with 
them, by the infliction of punishment and even death on 
account of their principles, even when no seditious conduct 
could be alleged against them. Everyone, he said, should 
be allowed to believe what he liked. Similarly he wrote to 
Nuremberg shortly after, where as we have already men- 
tioned, the new errors were spreading, saying that he could 
in no wise admit the right to execute false prophets or 
teachers ; it was quite enough to expel them. Luther in 
this distinguished himself above most of the men of the 
Eeformation. At Zurich, while Zwingli was accusing Luther 
of cruelty, Anabaptists were being drowned in public. 

The foreground is now occupied again by the struggle 
with Catholicism — in other words, by the contest with the 
German princes who were hostile to the Eeformation, and 
with the Emperor himself and the majority of the Diet. 



384 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTEK IV. 

CHUECH DIVISIONS IN GEEMANY WAE WITH THE TUEKS 

THE CONFEEENCE AT MAEBUEG, 1529. 

In the war against the Pope and France an imperial army 
in 1527 had stormed and plundered Eome. God, as Luther 
said, had so ordained, that the Emperor, who persecuted 
Luther for the Pope, had to destroy the Pope for Luther. 
But Charles V. was not then in a position to break with the 
Head of the Church. In the treaty concluded with the 
Pope in November, mention was again made of extirpating 
the Lutheran heresy. And whilst in Italy the war with 
France was still going on, the Emperor in the spring of 
1528 sent an ambassador to the German Courts, to rouse 
fresh zeal for the Church in this matter. 

But before the threatened danger actually reached the 
Evangelical party, it was preceded by disquieting rumours 
and false alarms. 

In March 1528 a new Diet was to assemble at Eatisbon. 
Luther heard in February of strange designs being medi- 
tated there by the Papists. His wish was that Charles's 
brother Ferdinand might be detained in Hungary, where 
he was occupied in fighting the Turks and their 'protege, 
Prince John Zapolya of Transylvania, and that the Diet 
should be prevented from meeting. Luther's adversaries, 
ori the other hand, feared an unfavourable decision from 
the Estates, and the Emperor at length peremptorily for- 
bade their meeting. 

Just about this time, John Pack, a steward of the 
chancery who had been dismissed by Duke George of 



CHURCH .DIVISIONS IN GERMANY. 385 

Saxony, came to the Landgrave Philip and informed him 
of a league concluded with King Ferdinand by the Dukes 
of Saxony and Bavaria, the Electors of Mayence and 
Brandenburg, and several Bishops, to attack the Evan- 
gelical princes. The Electorate of Saxony, where John 
was just then engaged in completing the re- organisation 
of the Church, was to be partitioned among them, and 
Hesse was to be allotted to Duke George. John and 
Philip quickly formed an offensive and defensive alliance, 
and called out their troops. The whole scheme, as was 
shortly proved beyond dispute, was an invention, and the 
pretended treaty a forgery, of Pack, who had been paid a 
large sum for his revelations. Luther himself had no doubt 
of the genuineness of the document, and persisted even 
afterwards in his belief. But while the Landgrave, with 
his habitual vehemence, was impatient to strike quickly, 
before their enemies were prepared, both Luther and the 
other Wittenberg theologians did their utmost to restrain 
their sovereign from any act of violence. Luther earnestly 
bade him remember the words : ' Blessed are the meek, for 
they shall inherit the earth ' (St. Matt. v. 5), — 'As much as 
lieth in you, live peaceably with all men' (Kom. xii. 18), — 
* Those that take the sword, shall perish with the sword ' 
(St. Matt. xxvi. 52). He warned them that 'one durst not 
paint the devil over one's door, nor ask him to stand god- 
father.' He feared a civil war among the princes, which 
would be worse than a rising of the peasants, and utterly 
ruinous to Germany. Philip accordingly stayed his hand, 
until the reply of his supposed enemies, from whom he 
demanded an explanation, puzzled him as to the meaning 
of Pack's overtures. 

A private letter sent by Luther to Link, in which he 
spoke of George as a fool, and said he mistrusted his 
promises, led afterwards, on George's learning its contents, 
to a new and bitter quarrel between the two. The Duke 
made a violent attack on Luther in a pamphlet, which 

c c 



386 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

appeared early in 1521, to which the latter replied with equal 
violence, denouncing the abuse of ' secret (i.e. private) and 
stolen letters.' George retorted in the same strain, and 
persuaded his cousin John, to whom he addressed a formal 
complaint, to prohibit Luther from printing anything more 
against him without Electoral permission ; — a step which 
effectually silenced his opponent. 

On November 30, 1528, the Emperor summoned a Diet 
to meet at Spires on February 21 of the following year, in 
order that decisive and energetic measures should be taken 
— as recommended once more by the Pope — to secure the 
unity and sole supremacy of the Catholic Church. The chief 
subjects named for deliberation were, the armament against 
the Turks, and the innovations in matters of religion. 

As regards the war against the Turks, Luther, who had 
previously let fall some occasional remarks about certain 
wholesome effects it would have in checking the designs of 
the Papacy, let his voice be heard, notwithstanding, in 
summoning the whole nation to do battle against the fearful 
and horrible enemy, whom they had hitherto suffered so 
shamefully to oppress them. Since the latter part of the 
summer of 1528 he had been engaged upon a pamphlet ' On 
the War against the Turks,' the publication of which was 
accidentally delayed till March, when he was busy with his 
Catechism. 

In this pamphlet he spoke to his fellow- Germans, with 
the noblest fire and in the fulness of his strength, as a 
Christian, a citizen, and a patriot, and with a clearness 
and decision derived from convictions and principles of his 
own. He had no wish to preach a new crusade ; for the 
sword had nothing to do with religion, but only with 
bodily and temporal things. But he exhorted and en- 
couraged the authority, whom God had entrusted with 
temporal power, to take up the sword against the all- 
devouring enemy, with sure trust in God and certain 
confidence in his mission. By the ' authority ' he meant 



CHURCH DIVISIONS IN GERMANY. 387 

the Emperor, in whom he recognised the head of Germany. 
He it was who must fight against the Turks ; under his 
banner they must march, and upon that banner should be 
seen the command of God, which said ' Protect the 
righteous, but punish the wicked.' ' But,' asked Luther, 
' how many are there who can read those words on the 
Emperor's banner, or who seriously believe in them ? ' 
He complained that neither Emperor nor princes properly 
believed that they were Emperor and princes, and there- 
fore thought little about the protection they owed to their 
subjects. Further on he rebuked the princes for letting 
matters go on as if they had no concern in them, instead 
of advising and assisting the Emperor with all the means 
in their power. He knew well the pride of some of the 
princes, who would like to see the Emperor a nonentity 
and themselves the heroes and masters. Rebellion, he said, 
was punished in the case of the peasants ; but if rebellion 
were punished also among princes and nobles, he fancied 
there would be very few of them left. He feared that 
the Turk would bring some such punishment upon them, , 
and he prayed God to avert it. Finally, he bade them 
remember not to buckle on their armour too loosely, 
and underrate their enemies, as Germans were too prone 
to do. He warned them not to tempt God by inadequate 
preparation, and sacrifice the poor Germans at the 
shambles, nor as soon as the victory was won to ' sit down 
again and carouse until the hour of need returned.' 

At Spires, however, the whole zeal of the imperial 
commissaries and of the Catholic Estates was directed, not 
against the common enemy of Germany and Christendom, 
but to the internal affairs of the Church. They succeeded 
in passing a resolution or article, declaring that those 
States which had held to the Edict of Worms should 
continue to impose its execution on their subjects : the 
other States should abstain at least from further innova- 
tions. The celebration of the mass was not to be obstructed, 

c c 2 



388 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

nor was anyone to be prevented from hearing it. The 
subjects of one State were never to be protected by another 
State against their own. By these means, not only was 
the Eeformation prevented from spreading farther, but it 
was cut off at a blow in those places where it had already 
been in full swing. By the decision respecting the mass, 
room was given for attempts to reinstate it on Evangelical 
territory ; by the other decision respecting the subjects of 
different States, power was given to the bishops of the 
German Empire to coerce, if they chose, the local clergy, 
as their subordinates. Further steps in the exercise of this 
power could easily be anticipated. 

This resolution of the majority was answered on April 
19 by the Evangelical party with a formal protest, A om 
which they received the name their descendants still bear 
— Protestants. They insisted that the Imperial Becess 
unanimously agreed on at the first Diet of Spires in 1526 
could only be altered by the unanimous consent of the 
States ; and they declared ' that, even apart from that, in 
matters relating to the honour of God and the salvation of 
our souls, every man must stand alone before God and 
give account for himself.' In these matters, therefore, 
they could not submit to the resolution of the majority. 

The majority, however, as well as Ferdinand, the 
Emperor's brother and representative, refused to admit 
their right of opposition. The minority must prepare 
to submit to coercion and the exercise of force. Against 
this the Elector and Landgrave concluded, on April 22, 
a ' secret agreement ' with the cities of Nuremberg, 
Strasburg, and Ulm. The Landgrave was eager that 
this alliance should be strengthened by the admission of 
Zurich and the other Evangelical towns in Switzerland. 
And a similar proposal was made to him by Zwingli, who, 
in connection with his ecclesiastical labours, was carrying 
on a bold and high policy, in striving to effect an alliance 
with the republic of Venice and the King of France against 



CHURCH DIVISIONS IN GERMANY. 389 

the Emperor. He certainly far overrated the importance 
of his town in the great affairs of the world, and placed a 
strangely naive confidence in the French monarch. 

Luther, on the contrary, set his face as resolutely now 
as in the affair of Pack, against any appeal to the sword in 
support of the gospel. He would have his friends rely on 
God and not on the wit of man ; and, with regard to the 
last Diet, he was quite content that God had not allowed 
their enemies to rage even more. He was willing even to 
trust to the Emperor for relief ; the Evangelical party, he 
said, should represent to his Majesty how their sole concern 
was for the gospel and for the removal of abuses which 
no one could deny to exist ; how, at the same time, they 
had resisted the iconoclasts and other riotous fanatics, nay, 
how the suppression of the Anabaptists and the peasants 
was pre-eminently due to them ; and how they had been 
the first to bring to light and vindicate the rights and 
majesty of authority. A representation of this kind, he 
hoped, must surely have an influence on the Emperor. 
He flatly rejected any alliance with those,— namely, the 
Swiss, — who ' strive thus against God and the Sacrament ; ' 
such an alliance would disgrace the gospel and draw down 
their sins upon their heads. This opinion, in which the 
other Wittenberg theologians, and especially Melancthon, 
concurred, determined that of the Elector. 

The Landgrave did his utmost to remove this obstacle 
to an alliance with the Swiss. He urged a personal con- 
ference between the rival theologians on the question of 
the Sacrament. Luther and Melancthon were strongly 
opposed to such a step, inasmuch as the course of the 
controversy hitherto had not revealed a single point which 
offered any hope of reconciliation or mutual approach. 
Luther reminded him how, ten years before, the Leipzig 
disputation served only to make bad worse. Intrigues, 
moreover, were apprehended from the other side, lest the 
Lutherans should be held up to odium as the enemies of 



39Q RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

unity and obstacles to an alliance, and the Landgrave be 
alienated from them. Melancthon, indeed, had brought 
with him from Spires, where he had been staying with 
Philip, a suspicion that the latter inclined to the 
Zwinglians, and was right in his conjecture at least so 
far, that their doctrine did not appear to him nearly so 
questionable as to the Wittenbergers. But the simple 
fear of consequences made Luther unwilling and unable 
to refuse the Landgrave's urgent invitation, backed as it 
was with the concurrence of the Elector. He wrote to him 
on June 23, declaring his readiness to ' render him this 
useless service with all diligence,' and only entreated him 
to consider once more whether it would do more good than 
harm. The conference was to take place at the Castle of 
Marburg on Michaelmas day (1529). 

Luther's sentiments in the interval are expressed in a 
letter which he wrote on August 2 to a distant friend, the 
pastor Brismann at Biga. ' Philip (Melancthon) and myself,' 
he says, 'after many refusals and much vain resistance, 
have been at length compelled to give our consent, be- 
cause of the Landgrave's importunity ; but I know not yet 
whether our going will come to anything. We have no 
hopes of any good result, but suspect artifice on all sides, 
that our enemies may be able to boast of having gained the 
victory. ... I am pretty well in body, but inwardly 
weak, suffering like Peter from want of faith ; but the 
prayers of my brethren support me. . . . That youth of 
Hesse is restless, and boiling over with projects. . . . Thus 
everywhere we are threatened with more danger from our 
own people than from our enemies. Satan rests not, in 
his bloodthirstiness, from the work of murder and bloodshed.' 

In the same letter Luther tells of the panic caused 
by a new pestilence — the Sweating Sickness — which had 
appeared in Germany and at Wittenberg itself. It was a 
plague, known already many years before, which used to 
attack its victims with fever, sweat, thirst, intense pain and 



CHURCH DIVISIONS IN GERMANY. 391 

exhaustion, and snatch them off with fearful rapidity. 
Luther knew well the danger of it when once it actually 
appeared. But he watched without terror the supposed 
symptoms of its appearance at Wittenberg, and remarked 
that the sickness there was mainly caused by fright. On 
the 27th he told another friend how the night before he 
had awoke bathed in sweat, and tormented with anxious 
thoughts, so much so, that had he given way to them he 
might very likely have fallen ill like so many others. He 
named also several of his acquaintances, whom he had 
driven out of bed, when they lay there fancying themselves 
ill, and who were now laughing at their own fancies. 

The Emperor, meanwhile, concluded a final treaty with 
the Pope on June 29, and on August 5 made peace with King 
Francis. By this treaty of Barcelona he pledged himself to 
provide a suitable antidote to the poisonous infection of the 
new opinions. By the peace of Cambray he renewed the 
promise, given in the treaty of Madrid, of a mutual co- 
operation of the two monarchs for the extirpation of heresy. 

At Marburg the meeting now actually took place between 
the theological champions of that great religious movement 
which strove to set up the gospel against the domination of 
Borne, and was therefore condemned by Kome as heretical. 
It was now to be decided whether the anti-Bomanists 
could not become united among themselves ; whether the 
two hostile parties in this movement could not, at least in 
face of the common danger, join to make a powerful united 
Church. Zwingli's political conduct, and the cheerful and 
submissive readiness with which he had complied with the 
Landgrave's proposal, afforded ground for expecting that, 
while steadfastly adhering to his own doctrine, he would 
embrace such an alliance, notwithstanding their doctrinal 
differences. Everything now really depended upon Luther. 

Zwingli and Oecolampadius met the Strasburg theo- 
logians, Butzer and Hedio, and Jacob Sturm, the leading 
citizen of that town, on September 29, at Marburg. The 



392 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

next day they were joined by Luther and Melancthon, to- 
gether with Jonas and Cruciger from Wittenberg and 
Myconius from Gotha ; and afterwards came the preachers 
Osiander from Nuremberg, Brenz from Sehwabish Hall, and 
Stephen Agricola from Augsburg. The Landgrave enter- 
tained them in a friendly and sumptuous manner at his castle. 
On October 1, the day after his arrival, Luther was 
summoned by the Landgrave to a private conference with 
Oecolampadius, towards whom he had always felt more 
confidence, and whom he had greeted in a friendly manner 
when they met. Melancthon, being of a calmer tempera- 
ment, was left to confer with Zwingli. As regards the 
main subject of the controversy, the question of the Sacra- 
ment, no practical result was arrived at between the parties. 
But on certain other points, in which Zwingl: had been 
suspected by the Wittenbergers, and in which he partly 
differed from them — for instance, concerning the Church 
doctrine of the Trinity in Unity, and the Godhead of 
Christ, and the doctrine of original sin — he offered ex- 
planations to Melancthon, the result of which was that the 
two came to an agreement. 

The general debate began on Sunday, October 2, at six 
o'clock in the morning The theologians assembled for that 
purpose in an apartment in the east wing of the castle, 
before the Landgrave himself, and a number of nobles and 
guests of the court, including the exiled Duke Ulrich of 
Wurtemberg. Out of deference to the audience, the language 
used was to be German. Zwingli had wished, instead, that 
anyone who desired it might be admitted to hear, but that 
the discussion should be held in Latin, which he could speak 
with greater fluency. The four theologians last mentioned, 
who were to conduct the debate, sat together at a table. 
Luther, however, assumed the lead of his side ; Melancthon 
only put in a few remarks here and there. The Landgrave's 
chancellor, Feige, opened the proceedings with a formal 
address. 



CHURCH DIVISIONS IN GERMANY, 393 

Luther at the outset requested that his opponents should 
first express their opinions upon other points of doctrine 
which seemed to him doubtful ; but he waived this request 
on Oecolampadius's replying that he was not aware that 
such doubts involved any contradiction to Luther's doctrine, 
and on Zwingli's appealing to his agreement recently 
effected with Melancthon. All he himself had to do, said 
Luther, was to declare publicly, that with regard to those 
doubts he disagreed entirely with certain expressions con- 
tained in their earlier writings. The chief question was 
then taken in hand. 

The arguments and counter-arguments, set forth by the 
combatants at various times in their writings, were now 
succinctly but exhaustively recapitulated. But they were 
neither strengthened further nor enlarged. The disputants 
were constrained to listen during this debate to the oral 
utterances of their opponents with more deference than 
they had done for the most part in their literary controversy, 
with its hasty and passionate expressions on each side. 

Luther from the outset took his stand, as he had done 
before, on the simple words of institution, ' This is my 
Body.' He had chalked them down before him on the table. 
His opponents, he maintained, ought to give to God the 
honour due to Him, by believing His ' pure and unadorned 
Word.' 

Zwingli and Oecolampadius, on the contrary, relied 
mainly, as heretofore, on the words of Christ in the sixth 
chapter of St. John, where He evidently alluded to a 
spiritual feeding, and declared that ' the flesh profiteth 
nothing.' Honour must be given to God, he said, by 
accepting from Him this clear interpretation of His Word. 
Luther agreed with them, as previously, that Jesus there 
spoke only of the spiritual partaking by the faithful, but 
maintained that in the Sacrament He had, in his words 
of institution, superadded the offer of His Body for the 
strengthening of faith and that these words were not 



394 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

useless or unmeaning, but of potent efficacy through the 
Word of God. ' I would eat even crab- apples,' said Luther, 
' without asking why, if the Lord put them before me, 
and said " Take and eat." He fired up when Zwingli 
answered that the passage in St. John ' broke Luther's 
neck,' the expression not being as familiar to him as to the 
Swiss : the Landgrave himself had to step in as a mediator 
and quiet them. 

In the afternoon Luther's opponents proceeded to argue 
that Christ could not be present with His Body at the 
Sacrament, because His Body was in heaven, and the body, 
as such, was confined within circumscribed limits, and 
could only be present in one place at a time. Luther then 
asked, with reference to the objection that Christ was in 
heaven and at the right hand of God, why Zwingli insisted 
on taking those words in such a nakedly literal sense. 
He declined to enter upon explanations as to the locality of 
the Body, though he could well have disputed for a long 
time on that subject : for the omnipotence of God, he said, 
by virtue whereof that Body was present everywhere at the 
Sacrament, stood above all mathematics. Of greater weight 
to him must have been the argument of Zwingli, which at 
any rate had a Christian and biblical aspect, that Christ 
with His flesh became like his human brethren, while they 
again at the last day are to be fashioned like unto his 
glorified Body, though incapable, nevertheless, of being in 
different places at the same time. Luther rejected this argu- 
ment, however, on the ground of the distinction he was 
careful to draw between the actual attributes which Christ 
possessed in common with all Christians, and those which 
He did not so possess at all, or possessed in a manner 
peculiar to Himself, and exalting him far above mankind. 
For example, Christ had no wife, as men have. 

The next day, Sunday, Luther preached the early 
morning sermon. He connected his remarks with the 
Gospel for the day, and dwelt with freshness and power, 



CHURCH DIVISIONS IN GERMANY. 395 

but without any reference to the controversy then pending, 
on forgiveness of sin and justification by faith. 

The disputation, however, was resumed later on in the 
morning. The subject of discussion was still the presence 
of Christ's Body in the Sacrament. Luther persisted in 
refusing to regard that Body as one involving the idea of 
limits : the Body here was not local or circumscribed by 
bounds. The Swiss, on the other hand, did not deny the 
possibility of a miracle, whereby God might permit a body 
to be in more than one place at the same time ; but then 
they demanded proof that such a miracle was really 
effected with the Body of Christ. Luther again appealed 
to the words before him : ' This is My Body.' He said : ' I 
cannot slur over the words of our Lord. I cannot but 
acknowledge that the Body of Christ is there.' Here 
Zwingli quickly interrupted him with the remark that 
Luther himself restricted Christ's Body to a place, for the 
adverb ' there ' was an adverb of place. Luther, however, 
refused to have his off-hand expression so interpreted, and 
again deprecated ike matkematical argument. The same 
clay, the second of the debate, Zwingli and Oecolampadius 
sought to fortify their theory by evidence adduced from 
Christian antiquity. On some points at least they were 
able to appeal to Augustine. But Luther put a different 
construction on the passages they quoted, and refused 
altogether to accept him as an authority against Scripture. 
That evening the disputation was concluded by each party 
protesting that their doctrine remained unrefuted by Scrip- 
ture, and leaving their opponents to the judgment of God, 
by whom they might still be converted. Zwingli broke 
into tears. 

Philip in vain endeavoured to bring the contending 
parties to a closer understanding. Just then the news 
came that the fearful pestilence, the Sweating Sickness, had 
broken out in the town. All further proceedings were 
stopped at once, and everyone hurried away with his 



396 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

guests. The Landgrave only hastily arranged that in 
regard to the points of Christian belief in which it was 
doubtful how far the Swiss agreed with the Evangelical 
faith, a series of propositions should be drawn up by 
Luther, and signed by the theologians on both sides. This 
was done on the Monday. They are the fifteen ' Articles 
of Marburg.' They expressed unity in all other doctrines, 
and in the Sacrament also, in so far as they declared that 
the Sacrament of the Altar is a Sacrament of the true 
Body and Blood of Christ, and that the ' spiritual eating ' 
of that Body is the primary condition required. The only 
point left in dispute was ' whether the true Body and Blood 
of Christ are present bodily in the bread and wine.' 

If we compare the manner in which this disputation 
at Marburg was conducted with the previous character of 
the contest, in which the one party had denounced their 
opponents as diabolical fanatics, and the other as reaction- 
ary Papists and worshippers of ' a god made of bread,' it 
will be evident that some results of importance at least 
had been attained by the discussion itself and the mode in 
which it had been held. The tone here, from first to last, 
was more courteous, nay, even friendly in comparison. 
And the moderation now used by these frank, outspoken 
men, so passionately excited hitherto, could not have re- 
sulted solely from self-imposed restraint. Luther, when he 
wished to speak very emphatically, addressed his opponents 
as ' my dearest sirs.' Brenz, who was an eye-witness, 
tells us one might have thought Luther and Zwingli were 
brothers. And, in fact, on all the main doctrines but that 
one they agreed. Finer distinctions of theory, which 
might have furnished food for argument, were mutually 
waived. But the essential divergence between them on 
the one great point of the Sacrament, and the spirit mani- 
fested in regard to it, made it impossible for Luther to hold 
out to Zwingli the right hand of fellowship, which the 
latter and his party so earnestly desired. Luther held to 







/ </ 



01L4& 



i ■ v 

Facsimile of the Supekscription and Signatures to the Marburg Articles. 



398 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

his opinion : ' Yours is a different spirit from ours.' His com- 
panions unanimously agreed with him that though they 
might entertain sentiments of friendship and Christian 
love towards them, they dared not acknowledge them as 
brethren in Christ. In the ' Articles ' the only mention 
made of this matter was that although they had not yet 
agreed on that point, still ' each party should treat the 
other with Christian charity, so far as each one's conscience 
would permit.' 

On Tuesday afternoon Luther left Marburg, and set 
out on his journey homeward. At the wish of the Elector 
he travelled by way of Schleiz, where John was then 
consulting with the Margrave George of Brandenburg 
about the Protestant alliance. They desired of Luther a 
short and comprehensive confession of evangelical faith, as 
members of which they wished to enrol themselves. Luther 
immediately compiled one accordingly, upon the basis of 
the Marburg Articles, making some additions and strength- 
ening some expressions in accordance with his own views. 
About October 18 he returned to Wittenberg. 

This confession was submitted without delay to a meet- 
ing of Protestants at Schwabach. The result was, that 
Ulm and Strasburg declined to subscribe a compact from 
which the Swiss were excluded. 

Within the league itself, the question was now seriously 
considered, how far the Protestant States might go, in the 
event of the Emperor really seeking to coerce them to sub- 
mission — whether, in a word, they could venture to oppose 
force to force. Luther's opinion, however, on this point 
remained unshaken. Whatever civil law and counsellors 
might say, it was conclusive for them as Christians, in his 
opinion, that civil authority was ordained by God, and that 
the Emperor, as the lord paramount of Germany, was the 
supreme civil authority in the nation. His first considera- 
tion was the imperial dignity, as he conceived it, and the 
relative nosition and duties of the princes of the Empire, 



CHURCH DIVISIONS IN GERMANY. 399 

As subjects of the Emperor, he regarded these princes in 
the same light as he regarded their own territorial sub- 
jects, the burgomasters of the towns and the various other 
magnates and nobles, to whom they themselves had never 
conceded any right to oppose, either by protest or force, 
their own regulations, as territorial sovereigns, in matters 
affecting the Church. Not, indeed, that he required a 
simply passive obedience, however badly the authorities 
and the Emperor might behave ; on the contrary, he ad- 
mitted the possibility of having to depose the Emperor. 
* Sin itself,' he said, ' does not destroy authority and obe- 
dience ; but the punishment of sin destroys them, as, for 
instance, if the Empire and the Electors were unanimously 
to dethrone the Emperor, and make him cease to be one. 
But so long as he remains unpunished and Emperor, no 
one should refuse him obedience.' Nothing, therefore, in 
his opinion, short of a common act of the Estates could 
provide a remedy against an unjust, tyrannical, and law- 
breaking Emperor, while at present it was apparent that 
Charles and the majority of the Diet were agreed. Hence 
he refused to recognise the right of individual States to an 
appeal to force, for his theory of the German Empire in- 
volved the idea of a firm and united community or State, 
and not in any way that of a league or federation, the 
independent members of which might take up arms against 
a breach of their articles of agreement. This theory was 
shared by his Elector and the Nurernbergers. Just as 
these Protestants for conscience sake had refused obedience 
to the resolution of the Diet at Spires, so they felt them- 
selves bound by conscience to submit to the consequences 
of that refusal. Luther's opinion, therefore, as to the 
proper attitude for the Protestant States was the same as 
he had expressed to the Elector Frederick on his return 
from the Wartburg. It was their duty, he said, if God 
should permit matters to go so far, to allow the Emperor 
to enter their territory and act against their subjects, with- 



400 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

out, however, giving their assent or assisting him. But he 
added : ' It is sheer want of faith not to trust to God to 
protect us, without any wit or power of man. ... " In 
quietness and confidence shall be your strength." ' 

Meanwhile Luther was anxious to respond still further 
to the call of duty against the Turks. Their multitudinous 
hosts had advanced as far as Vienna, and had severely 
harassed that city, which, though defended with heroic 
valour, was but badly fortified. A general assault was made 
in force while Luther was on his homeward journey. The 
news stirred him to his inmost soul. He ascribed to it, and 
to their god, the devil, the violent temptations and anguish 
of soul from which he was then suffering again. Immediately 
after his return, he undertook to write a ' War sermon 
against the Turks.' On October 26 he received the tidings 
that they were compelled to retreat. This was a ' heaven- 
sent miracle ' to him. But though his former exhortations 
and warnings had seemed to many exaggerated, he was right 
in perceiving that the danger was only averted. He published 
his sermon, a new edition of which had to be issued with the 
new year. 

He saw in the Turks the fulfilment of the prophecy of 
Ezekiel and the Bevelation of St. John about Gog and 
Magog, and therewith a judgment of God for the punish- 
ment of corrupt Christendom. But just as in his first 
pamphlet he had called on the authorities, in virtue of 
their appointment by God, to protect their own people 
against the enemy, so he now wished further to make all 
German Christians strong in conscience and full of courage, 
to take the field under their banner, according to God's 
command. He set before them the example of the ' beloved 
St. Maurice and his companions,' and of many other saints, 
who had served in arms their Emperor as knights or citizens. 
He would, if danger came in earnest, ' fain have, whoever 
could, defend themselves, — young and old, husband and 
wife, man-servant and maid-servant,' just as, according to 



CHURCH DIVISIONS IN GERMANY. 401 

ancient Eoman writers, the German wives and maidens 
fought together with the men. He looked on no house as 
so mean that it might not do something to repel the foe. 
Was it not better to be slain at home, in obedience to God, 
than to be taken prisoners and dragged away like cattle to 
be sold ? At the same time he exhorted and encouraged 
those whom this misfortune befell, that, as Jeremiah 
admonished the Jews in Babylon, they should be patient 
in prison, and cling firmly to the faith, and neither through 
their misery nor through the hypocritical worship of the 
Turks, allow themselves to be seduced into becoming rene- 
gades. 

Such is what he preached to the people, while he had to 
complain in his letters to friends that ' the Emperor Charles 
threatens us even still more dreadfully than does the Tui k ; 
so that on both sides we have an Emperor as our enemy, an 
Eastern and a Western one.' And in those days also he 
expressed his opinion that those who confessed the gospel 
should keep their hands ' unsoiled by blood and crime ' as 
regards their Emperor, and, even though his behaviour 
might be a ' very threat of the devil,' should keep steadfastly 
to their God, with prayer, supplication, and hope, — to that 
God Whose manifest help had hitherto been so abundantly 
vouchsafed to them. 



DD 



4Q2 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTEE V. 

THE DIET OF AUGSBURG AND LUTHER AT COBURG, 1530. 

A proclamation of the Emperor, convoking a new Diet at 
Augsburg for April 8, 1530, seemed now to indicate a more 
pacific demeanour. For in assigning to this Diet the task of 
consulting ' how best to deal with and determine the differ- 
ences and division in the holy faith and the Christian re- 
ligion,' it desired, for this object, that ' every man's opinions, 
thoughts, and notions should be heard in love and charity, 
and carefully weighed, and that men should thus be brought 
in common to Christian truth, and be reconciled.' The 
Emperor by no means meant, as might be inferred from this 
proclamation, that the two opposing parties should treat 
and arrange with each other on an equal footing ; the 
rights of the Eomish Church remained, as before, unalter- 
ably fixed. He only wished to avoid, if possible, the dangers 
of internal warfare. Even the Papal legate Campeggio, 
agreed that conciliatory measures might first be tried ; the 
arrangements for the visitation of the Saxon Electorate 
were already construed at Eome, as indeed by many 
German Catholics, into a sign that people there were 
frightened at the so-called freedom of the gospel, and were 
inclined to return to the old system. But Luther at this 
moment displayed again the confidence which he always 
so gladly reposed in his Emperor. He announced on 
March 14 to Jonas, then absent on the business of the visi- 
tation : ' The Emperor Charles writes that he will come in 
person to Augsburg, to settle everything peaceably.' The 
Elector John immediately instructed his theologians to 



THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 403 

draw up for him articles in view of the proceedings at the 
Diet, embodying a statement of their own opinions. They 
were also required to hold themselves in readiness to accom- 
pany him on his journey to Augsburg. There was, however, 
no hurry about arriving there ; for the Emperor came thither 
so slowly from Italy, that it was found impossible to meet 
on the day originally appointed. 

On April 3 Luther, Melancthon, and Jonas went to the 
Elector at Torgau, in order to start with him from there. 
He took Spalatin also with him, and Agricola as preacher. 
The 10th, Palm Sunday, they spent at Weimar, where the 
prince wished to partake of the sacrament. At Coburg, 
where they arrived on the 15th, they expected to receive 
further news as to the day fixed for the actual opening of 
the Diet. Luther preached here on Easter Day, and on 
the following Monday and Thursday, upon the Easter texts 
and the grand acts of Kedemption. 

On Friday, the 22nd, the Elector received an intima- 
tion from the Emperor to appear at Augsburg at the end of 
the month. The next morning he set off at once with his 
companions. Luther, however, was to remain behind. The 
man on whom lay the ban of the Empire and Church could 
not possibly, however favourably inclined the Emperor 
might be towards him, have appeared before the Emperor, 
the Estates, and the delegates of the Pope ; moreover, 
no safe-conduct would have availed him. Luther seems, 
nevertheless, to have been ingenuous enough to think 
the contrary. At least, he wrote to a friend that the 
Elector had bidden him remain at Coburg; why, he 
knew not. To another friend, however, he alleged as a 
reason, that his going would not have been safe. But 
his prince was anxious to keep him at any rate as close by 
as possible, at a safe place on the borders of his territory 
in the direction of Augsburg, so that he might be able to 
obtain advice from him in case of need. Moreover, he con- 
templated the possibility of his being summoned later on 

D D 2 



404 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

to Augsburg. A message from the one place to the othei 
took, at that time, four days as a rule. 

Accordingly, on the night of the 22nd, Luther was con- 
veyed to the fortress overlooking the town of Coburg. 
This was the residence assigned to him. 

His first day here passed by unoccupied. A box which 
he had brought, containing papers and other things, had 
not yet been delivered to him. He did not even see any 
governor of the castle. So he looked around him leisurely 
from the height, which oifered a wide and varied prospect, 
and examined the apartments now opened for his use. 
The principal part of the castle, the so-called Prince's 
Building, had been assigned him, and he was given at 
once the keys of all the rooms it contained. The one 
which he chose as his sitting-room is still shown. He was 
told that over thirty people took their meals at the castle. 

But his thoughts were still with his distant friends. 
He wrote that afternoon to Melancthon, Jonas, and Spalatin. 
1 Dearest Philip,' he begins to Melancthon, ' we have at last 
reached our Sinai, but we will make a Sion of this Sinai, 
and here will I build three tabernacles, one to the Psalms, 
one to the Prophets, and one to iEsop. ... It is a very 
attractive place, and just made for study; only your absence 
grieves me. My whole heart and soul are stirred and 
incensed against the Turks and Mahomet, when I see this 
intolerable raging of the devil. Therefore I shall pray and cry 
to God, nor rest until I know that my cry is heard in heaven. 
The sad condition of our German Empire distresses you 
more.' Then, after expressing a wish that the Lord might 
send his friend refreshing sleep, and free his heart from 
care, he told him about his residence at the castle, in the 
' empire of the birds.' In his letters to Jonas and Spalatin 
he indulged in humorous descriptions of the cries of the 
ravens and jackdaws which he had heard since four o'clock 
in the morning. A whole troop, he said, of sophists 
and schoolmen were gathered around him. Here he had 



THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 405 

also his Diet, composed of very proud kings, dukes, and 
grandees, who busied themselves about the empire and 
sent out incessantly their mandates through the air. This 
year, he heard, they had arranged a crusade against the 
wheat, barley, and other kinds of corn, and these fathers 
of the Fatherland already hoped for grand victories and 
heroic deeds. This, said Luther, he wrote in fun, but in 
serious fun, to chase away if possible the heavy thoughts 
which crowded on his mind. A few days later he enlarged 
further on this sportive simile in a letter to his Wittenberg 
table-companions, i.e. the young men of the university who, 
according to custom, boarded with him. He was delighted 
to see how valiantly these knights of the Diet strutted about 
and wiped their bills, and he hoped they might some day 
or other be spitted on a hedge-stake. He fancied he could 
hear all the sophists and papists with their lovely voices 
around him, and he saw what a right useful folk they were, 
who ate up everything on the earth and ' whiled away the 
heavy time with chattering.' He was glad, however, to 
have heard the first nightingale, who did not often venture 
to come in April. 

As companions he had his amanuensis, Veit Dietrich 
from Nuremberg, and his nephew Cyriac Kaufmann from 
Mansfeld, a young student. The former, born in 1506, had 
been at the university of Wittenberg since 1523 ; he soon 
became preacher in his native town, where he distin- 
guished himself by his loyalty and courage. They were 
all hospitably entertained at the castle. Luther, in these 
comfortable quarters, let his beard grow again, as he had 
formerly done at the Wartburg. 

In that same letter to Melancthon, Luther mentioned 
several writings which he had in prospect. His chief work 
was a public ' Admonition to the Clergy assembled at the 
Diet at Augsburg.' He wished, as he said in the intro- 
duction, since he could not personally appear at the Diet, 
at least to be among them in writing with this his ' dumb 



406 



RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 



and weak message ; ' which he had expressed, however, in 
the strongest and most forcible language at his command. 
As for his own cause, he declared that for it no Diet was 
necessary. It had been brought thus far by the true 
Helper and Adviser, and there it would remain. He re- 




Fig. 40.— Veit Dietrich, as Pastor of Nuremberg. 
(From an old woodcut.) 

minded them once more of the chief scandals and iniquities 
against which he had been forced to contend : he warned 
them not to strain the strings too tightly, lest perhaps a 
new rebellion might arise ; and he promised them that if 
only they would leave the gospel free, they should be left 
in undisturbed possession of their principalities, their privi- 



THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 407 

leges, and their property, which in fact was all they cared 
for. This tract was already printed in May. 

He now took up in earnest the labours he had spoken 
of to Melancthon. His chief work was the continuation of 
his German Bible, namely the translation of the Prophets. 
He had long complained of the difficulties presented by 
these Books, and he now hoped to have the leisure they 
required. Such was his zeal that, when he came to 
Jeremiah, he looked forward to finishing all the Prophets 
by Whitsuntide, but he soon saw that this was impos- 
sible. He published the prophecy of Ezekiel about Gog 
and Magog by itself. His wish was to treat of various por- 
tions of the Psalms, his own constant book of comfort and 
prayer, for the benefit of his congregation ; and he began, 
accordingly, with a Commentary on the 118th Psalm. He 
expounded to Dietrich whilst at Coburg the first twenty-five 
Psalms ; and the transcript of his commentary on these, 
which Dietrich left behind him, was afterwards printed. 

And to these works he wished to add the fables of .ZEsop. 
His desire was to ' adapt them for youth and common men, 
that they should be of some profit to the Germans.' For 
among them, he said, were to be found, set forth in simple 
words, the most beautiful lessons and warnings, to show 
men how to live wisely and peacefully among bad people in 
the false and wicked world. Truth which none would endure, 
but which no man could do without, was clothed there in 
pleasing colours of fiction. For this work, however, Luther 
had very little time ; we possess only thirteen fables of his 
version. He has rendered them in the simplest popular 
language, and expressed the morals in many appropriate 
German proverbs. 

Luther thought at first that, with these occupations, he 
had better have remained at Wittenberg, where, as pro- 
fessor, he would have been of more service. 

Soon his bodily sufferings — the singing and noise in the 
head, and the tendency to faintness, — began again to attack 



408 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

him ; so that for several days he could neither read nor 
write, and for several weeks could not work continuously 
for any length of time. He did not know whether it was 
the effect of Coburg hospitality, or whether Satan was at 
fault. Dietrich thought his illness must be caused by 
Satan, since Luther had been particularly careful about 
his diet. He told also of a fiery, serpent-like apparition, 
which he and Luther had seen one evening in June at the 
foot of the Castle Hill. The same night Luther fainted 
away, and the next day was very ill ; and this fact confirmed 
Dietrich in his belief. 

On June 5 Luther received the news of the death of 
his aged lather, who breathed his last at Mansfeld, on 
Sunda} T , May 29, after long suffering, and in the firm belief 
in the gospel preached by his son. Luther was deeply moved 
by this intelligence. He had never ceased to treat him with 
the same high filial veneration that had formerly prompted 
him to dedicate to his parent his treatise on Monastic 
Vows, and to invite him to the celebration of his marriage, 
made, as we have seen, in accordance with his father's wish. 
Since his marriage, indeed, his parents had come to visit 
him at Wittenberg ; and the town accounts for 1527 contain 
an item of expense for a gallon of wine, given as a vin 
dlionneur to old Luther on that occasion. It was then that 
Cranach painted the portraits of Luther's parents which 
are now to be seen at the Wartburg. Luther had heard 
from his brother James in February 1530, that their father 
was dangerously ill. He sent a letter to him thereupon, on 
the 15th of that month, by the hands of his nephew 
Cyriac. He wrote : ' It would be a great joy to me if only 
you and my mother could come to us here. My Kate and 
all pray for it with tears. I should hope we would do our 
best to make you comfortable.' Meanwhile he prayed 
earnestly to his Heavenly Father to strengthen and en- 
lighten with His Holy Spirit this father whom He had 
given him on earth. He would leave it in the hands of his 
dear Lord and Saviour whether they should meet one 



THE DIET OE AUGSBURG. 409 

another again on earth or in heaven ; ' for,' said he, ' we 
doubt not but that we shall shortly see each other again 
in the presence of Christ, since the departure from this life 
is a far smaller matter with God, than if I were to come 
hither from you at Mansfeld, or you were to go to Mansfeld 
from me at Wittenberg.' After he had opened the letter 
with the news of his father's death, he said to Dietrich, ' So 
then, my father too is dead,' and then took his Psalter at 
once, and went to his room, to give vent to his tears. He 
expressed his grief and emotion the same day in a letter to 
Melancthon. Everything, he said, that he was or had, he 
had received through his Creator from this beloved father. 

He kept up his intimacy with his friends at Wittenberg 
through his letters to his wife, and by a correspondence 
with his friend Jerome Weller, who had come to live in his 
house, and who assisted in the education of his son, little 
Hans. Weller, formerly a jurist, and already thirty years 
old, was then studying theology at Wittenberg. He suffered 
from low spirits, and Luther repeatedly sent him from 
Coburg comfort and good advice. The little Hans had 
now begun his lessons, and Weller praised him as a pains- 
taking pupil. Luther's well-known letter to him was dated 
from Coburg, June 19. Written in the midst of the most 
serious studies and the most important events and reflec- 
tions, it must on no account be omitted in a survey of 
Luther's life and character. It runs as follows : — 

' Grace and peace in Christ, my dear little son. I am 
pleased to see that thou learnest thy lessons well, and 
prayest diligently. Do thus, my little son, and persevere ; 
when I come home I will bring thee a fine " fairing." I 
know of a pretty garden where merry children run about 
that wear little golden coats, and gather nice apples and 
pears, and cherries, and plums under the trees, and sing 
and dance, and ride on pretty horses with gold bridles and 
silver saddles. I asked the man of the place, whose the 
garden was, and whose the children were. He said, "These 
are the children who pray and learn, and are good." Then 



410 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

I answered, " Dear sir, I also have a son who is called Hans 
Luther. May he not also come into this garden, and eat 
these nice pears and apples, and ride a little horse and play 
with these children ?" The man said, "If he says his 
prayers, and learns, and is good, he too may come into 
the garden; and Lippus and Jost may come, 1 and when 
they all come back, they shall have pipes and drums and 
lutes and all sorts of stringed instruments, and they shall 
dance and shoot with little crossbows." Then he showed 
me a smooth lawn in the garden laid out for dancing, 
where hung pipes of pure gold, and drums and beautiful 
silver crossbows. But it was still early, and the children 
had not dined. So I could not wait for the dance, and said 
to the man, " Dear sir, I will go straight home and write 
all this to my dear little son Hans, that he may pray 
diligently and learn well and be good, and so come into 
this garden ; but he has an aunt, Lene, 2 whom he must 
bring with him." And the man answered, " So it shall be ; 
go home and write as you say." Therefore, dear little son 
Hans, learn and pray with a good heart, and tell Lippus 
and Jost to do the same, and then you will all come to 
the beautiful garden together. Almighty God guard you. 
Give my love to aunt Lene, and give her a kiss for me. 
In the year 1530. — Your loving father, Maktin Luther.' 

The intercourse between Coburg and Augsburg was, as 
may be imagined, well kept up by letters and messengers. 

But the crisis of importance arrived when now the 
great decision approached, or at least seemed to approach, 
for it was most unexpectedly delayed. 

Though the Elector had entered Augsburg on May 2, 
the Emperor did not arrive there till June 15. He had 
stopped on the way at Innsj)ruck, where Duke George and 
other princes hostile to the Reformation hastened to present 
themselves before him. 

1 Melancthon's son Philip, and Jonas's son Jodocus. 

2 Hans's great-aunt, Magdalen, mentioned in Part VI. Ch. vii. 



THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. ■ 411 

In the meanwhile, Melancthon worked with great in- 
dustry and anxious labour at the Apology and Confession 
which the Elector of Saxony was to lay before the Diet. 
Luther warned him, by his own example, against ruin- 
ing his head by immoderate exertion. He wrote to him 
on May 12 : 'I command you and all your company, 
that they compel you, under pain of excommunication, to 
keep your poor body by rule and order, so that you may 
not kill yourself and imagine that you do so from obedience 
to God. We serve God also by taking holiday and resting ; 
yes, indeed, in no other way better.' Melancthon had 
begun this work at Coburg, while there with Luther, and 
based his most important propositions of dogma on the 
articles which Luther had drawn up in the previous 
autumn at Schwabach. His chief efforts, however, in. 
accordance with his own inclination and line of thought, 
were directed to representing the evangelical doctrines as 
agreeing with the traditional doctrines of the universal 
Christian Church ; and the Protestant Eeformation as 
simply the abolition of certain practical abuses. Never 
would Luther have consented to submit to the Diet, and 
the Papists and enemies of the gospel there present, a Con- 
fession which marked so faintly the gulf of difference between 
himself and them. Nevertheless he gladly approved of this 
composition of his peace-making friend, which was sent to 
him for his opinion by the Elector immediately on its com- 
pletion, on May 11. His verdict was: 'I like it well 
enough, and see nothing to alter or improve ; indeed, I 
could not do so if I would, for I cannot tread so softly and 
gently. May Christ, our Lord, help that it may bring 
forth much fruit, as we hope and pray it will.' He en- 
couraged the Elector, in a letter full of tender words of 
comfort, to keep bis heart firm and patient, even if he had 
to stay in a tedious place. He pointed out to him God's 
great token of His love, in granting so freely to him and to 
his people the word of grace, and especi&^y in allowing 



412 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

the tender youth, the boys and girls who were his subjects, 
to grow up in his country as in a pleasant Paradise of God. 

News now reached them of the Emperor, that he blamed 
the Elector for the non-execution of the Edict of Worms, 
and forbade the clergymen whom the Protestant princes 
had brought to Augsburg, to preach there, — a prohibition 
against which even Luther admitted they were powerless. 
On the other side, Melancthon was particularly troubled 
and annoyed that the Landgrave Philip would not admit a 
repudiation of Zwingli's doctrine in the Confession, to which 
Melancthon attached the utmost importance, not only on 
account of the intrinsic objections to that doctrine, but 
chiefly in the interests of bringing about a reconciliation 
with the Catholics. He begged Luther, on May 22, to try 
and influence Philip by letter on this point. 

Luther appears to have shown but little inclination to 
accede to the request. Melancthon, waiting for his assent, 
stopped writing to him. Meanwhile Luther's friends at 
Augsburg were looking with anxiety for the arrival and first 
appearance of the Emperor. Three whole weeks passed by 
before Luther again received a letter from them; it was just 
at this time that he was mourning the death of his father. 

Luther was exceedingly indignant at this silence. On 
receiving another letter, on June 13, from Melancthon, who 
said he was impatiently waiting for the letter to the Land- 
grave, Luther sent back the messenger without an answer, 
and at first wus unwilling even to read the letter. He did, 
however, now, what was asked of him. He earnestly but 
calmly entreated Philip not to espouse their opponents' 
doctrine of the Sacrament, or allow himself to be moved 
by their ' sweet good ' words. And when now Melancthon, 
whom he had seriously frightened by his anger, grew rest- 
less and desponding and sleepless with increasing dis- 
quietude, through the difficulties at Augsburg, the threats 
of his embittered Catholic opponents, and the anxiety as to 
submitting the Confession to the Elector, and the conse- 



THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 413 

quences of so doing, and news also reached Luther of the 
troubles and distress of his other friends, he repeatedly sent 
to them at Augsburg fresh words of encouragement, com- 
fort, and counsel, which remain to attest, more than any- 
thing else, the nobleness of his mind and character. He 
speaks, as from a height of confident, clear, and proud 
conviction, to those who are struggling in the whirl and 
vortex of earthly schemes and counsels. He has gained 
this height, and maintains it in the implicit faith with 
which he clings to the invisible God, as if he saw Him ; 
and, raised above the world, he enjoys filial communion 
with his Heavenly Father. 

In answering another anxious letter from Melancthon on 
the 27th, he reproved his friend for the cares which he allowed 
to consume him, and which were the result, he said, not oi 
the magnitude of the task before him, but of his own want of 
faith. ' Let the matter be ever so great,' he said, ' great also 
is He who has begun and who conducts it ; for it is not our 
work. ..." Cast thy burthen upon the Lord ; the Lord is 
nigh unto all them that call upon Him." Does He say that 
to the wind, or does He throw his words before animals? 
... It is your worldly wisdom that torments you, and not 
theology. As if you, with your useless cares, could accom- 
plish anything. What more can the devil do than strangle 
us ? I conjure you, who in all other matters are so ready 
to fight, to fight against yourself as your greatest enemy.' 

Two days after, he had already another letter from his 
friend to answer. He saw from it, he said, the labour and 
trouble, the distress and tears of his friends. He received 
also the Confession, now completed, and had to give his 
opinion whether it would be possible to make still more 
concessions to the Eomanists. Upon this point he wrote : 
' Day and night I am occupied with it, I turn it over every 
way in my mind, I meditate and argue, and examine the 
Scriptures on the subject, and more and more convinced do 
I become of the truth of our doctrine, and more resolved 



4M RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

never, if God will, to allow another letter to be torn from 
us, be the consequence what it may.' But he objected tc 
the others speaking of ' following his authority ; ' the cause 
was theirs as much as his, and he himself would defend it, 
even if he stood alone. He then referred the anxious 
Melancthon again to that Faith which had certainly no 
place in his rhetoric or philosophy. For faith, he said, 
must recognise the Supernatural and the Invisible, and 
he who attempts to see and understand it receives only 
cares and tears for his reward, as Melancthon did now. 
' The Lord said that He would dwell in the thick darkness,' 
' and make darkness His secret place ' (1 Kings viii. 12 ; 
Psalm xviii. 11). 'He who wishes, let him do differently ; 
had Moses wished first to " understand " what the end of 
Pharaoh's army would be, then Israel would still be in Egypt. 
May the Lord increase faith in you and all of us ; if we have 
that, what in all the world shall the devil do with us ? ' 

He hastened to send off this letter, and wrote more again 
on the same subject the next day, June 30, to Jonas, who 
had informed him of Melancthon's afflictions and of the 
fierce hatred of their Catholic opponents ; also to Spalatin, 
Agricola, and Brenz, and to the young Duke John Frederick. 
He sought to calm the latter about the ' poisonous, wicked 
talons ' of his nearest blood-relations, especially the Duke 
George. He entreated all those theological friends to 
bring a wholesome influence to bear on their companion 
Melancthon, and for each of them he had particular words 
of affection. Melancthon, he wrote, must be dissuaded 
from wishing to direct the world and thus crucifying him- 
self. The news that ' the princes and nations rage against 
the Lord's anointed,' he accepted as a good sign ; for the 
Psalmist's words that immediately follow (Ps. ii. 4) were: 
' He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh : the Lord shall 
have them in derision.' He did not understand how men 
could be troubled since God still lives : ' He who has created 
me will be father to my son and husband to my wife ; He 



THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 4*7 

clear and solemn tones, the Saxon chancellor read the 
statement of that evangelical faith, which, only nine years 
before, at Worms, Luther had been required to retract. 
Luther was highly rejoiced. He saw fulfilled the words of 
the Psalmist, 'I will speak of Thy testimonies also before 
kings,' and he felt sure that the remainder of the verse, 
'and will not be ashamed' (Ps. cxix. 46), would likewise be- 
accomplished. He wrote to his Elector, saying it was, for- 
sooth, a clever trick of their enemies to seal the lips of the 
princes' preachers at Augsburg. The consequence was, 
that the Elector and the other nobles ' now preached freely 
under the very noses of his Imperial Majesty and the whole 
Empire, who were obliged to hear them, and could not offer 
any opposition.' How sorry he felt not to have been pre- 
sent there himself ! But he rejoiced to have seen the day 
when such men stood up in such an assembly, and so 
bravely bore witness to the truth of Christ. 

Tidings also now arrived of a certain clemency and gene- 
rosity even on the part of the Emperor, and of the peaceful 
disposition of some of the princes, such as Duke Henry of 
Brunswick, who invited Melancthon to dinner, and especially 
of Cardinal Albert, the Archbishop and Elector of Mayence. 
Luther, unlike Melancthon, was clear and certain on one 
point, that an agreement with their opponents on the 
questions of belief and religion was absolutely out of the 
question. But he now spoke out his opinion most decidedly 
as to a ' political agreement,' in spite of their differences of 
belief, — an agreement, in other words, that the two Con- 
fessions and Churches should peacefully exist together in 
the German Empire. This he wished, and almost hoped, 
might come to pass. In the Emperor Charles he recog- 
nised — he, the loyal-minded German — a good heart and 
noble blood, worthy of all honour and esteem. He did not 
dare to hope that the Emperor, surrounded as he was by 
evil advisers, should actually favour the Evangelical cause, 
but he believed at any rate so far in his clemency, in 

E E 



4i 8 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

that spirit he once more by letter approached the Arch- 
bishop. Since there was no hope, he wrote, of their be- 
coming one in doctrine, he begged him at least to use his 
influence that peace might be granted to the Evangelicals. 
For no one could be, or dared be, forced to accept a belief, 
and the new doctrine did no harm, but taught peace and 
preserved peace. He endeavoured further to appeal to the 
Archbishop's conscience as a German. ' We Germans do 
not give up believing in the Pope and his Italians until they 
bring us, not into a bath of sweat, but a bath of blood. If 
German princes fell upon one another, that would make 
the Pope, the little fruit of Florence, happy ; he would 
laugh in his sleeve and say : " There, you German beasts, 
you would not have me as Pope, so have that." ... I 
cannot hold my hands ; I must strive to help poor Germany, 
miserable, forsaken, despised, betrayed, and sold — to whom 
indeed I wish no harm, but everything that is good, as my 
duty to my dear Fatherland commands me.' 

Luther then would not only not hear of surrender, but 
looked upon as useless any further negotiations in matters 
of belief. He could not understand why his friends were 
detained any longer at Augsburg, where they had nothing 
to expect but menace and bravado on the part of their 
opponents. On July 15 he wrote to them : ' You have 
rendered unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and 
to God the things that are God's. . . . May Christ confess 
us, as you have confessed Him. . . . Thus I absolve you 
from this assembly in the Name of the Lord. Now go 
home again— go home ! ' 

But they had still to wait for a Eefutation, which the 
Emperor caused to be drawn up by some strict Catholic 
theologians, among whom were Eck, the old and ever violent 
and active enemy of Luther, and John Cochlaeus, originally a 
champion of Humanism, but who had, since the beginning 
of the great contest in the Church, distinguished himself by 
petty but bitter polemics against Luther, and now assisted 



TH& DIET OF AUGSBURG. 419 

Duke George in the place of the deceased Emser. Mean- 
while the spiritual and temporal lords caused the Protestants 
to fear the worst. For Melancthon, these were his worst 
and weakest hours. He even sought to pacify the Papal 
legate, by representing that there was no dogma in which 
they differed from the Eoman Church. He thought it 
possible that even large concessions might be made, so far 
at least as regarded the rites and services of the Church. 
For these were external things, and the bishops belonged to 
the authorities whom God had placed over the externals of 
life. 

Luther therefore had still to wait with patience. He 
continued his encouraging letters, nor did even menaces 
disturb him. He remembered that too sharp an edge 
gets only full of notches, and that, as he had already been 
told by Staupitz, God first shuts the eyes of those He wishes 
to plague. To begin a war now would be dangerous even to 
their enemies ; the beginning would lead to no progress, the 
war to no victory. To Melancthon he spoke, using a coarse 
German proverb, about a man who ' died of threatening.' 

He drew his richest and most powerful utterances from 
his one highest source, the Scriptures. In his own peculiar 
manner he expressed himself once to Briick, the chancellor 
of the Saxon Elector, his temporal adviser at Augsburg, and 
a man who did much to further the Keformation. ' I have 
lately,' he wrote, ' on looking out of the window, seen two 
wonders : the first, the glorious vault of heaven, with the 
stars, supported by no pillar and yet firmly fixed ; the second, 
great thick clouds hanging over us, and yet no ground upon 
which they rested, or vessel in which they were contained ; 
and then, after they had greeted us with a gloomy counte- 
nance and passed away, came the luminous rainbow, which 
like a frail thin roof nevertheless bore the great weight of 
water.' If anyone amidst the present troubles was not 
satisfied with the power of faith, Luther would compare him 
to a man who should seek for pillars to prevent the heavens 

E E 2 



420' RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

from falling, and tremble and shake because he could not 
find them. He was willing, as he wrote in this letter, to rest 
content, even if the Emperor would not grant the political 
peace they hoped for ; for God's thoughts are far above men's 
thoughts, and God, and not the Emperor, must have the 
honour. In a letter to Melancthon he explained calmly and 
clearly the duty of distinguishing between the bishops as 
temporal princes or authorities, and the bishops as spiritual 
shepherds, and how, in this latter capacity, they must never 
be allowed the' right of burdening Christ's flock with arbi- 
trary rites and ordinances. 

He now published a series of small tracts, one after the 
other, in which, with inflexible determination, he again 
asserted the evangelical principles against Catholic errors. 
In this spirit he wrote about the Church and Church au- 
thority ; against purgatory ; about the keys of the Church, 
or how Christ dispenses real forgiveness of sins to His 
community ; against the worship of the saints ; about the 
right celebration of the Sacrament, and so forth. Regardless 
of the pending questions of dispute, his thoughts reverted 
likewise to the needy condition of the schools : he wrote a 
special tract, ' On the duty of keeping Children at school.' 
His Commentary on the 118th Psalm was now followed by 
one upon the 117th. He also worked indefatigably at the. 
translation of the Prophets. Thus steadily he persevered in 
his labours, suffering more or less in his head, always weak 
and ' capricious.' At the conclusion of his stay at Coburg 
he told a friend that, on account of the ' buzzing and dizzi- 
ness ' in his head, he had been obliged, with all his regularity 
of habits, to make a holiday of more than half the summer. 

On August 3 the Catholic Refutation was at length sub- 
mitted to the Diet. It showed indeed, as did the imperial 
proclamation convoking the Diet, that it was far from the 
Emperor's intention to have the opinions of both sides 
fairly heard and judged in a friendly and impartial spirit: 
on the contrarv, he demanded that the Protestants should 



THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 421 

declare themselves convinced by it, and therefore con- 
quered. The Landgrave Philip replied to this demand 
by quitting Augsburg on August 6, without the leave and 
contrary to the command of the Emperor, and hastening 
home, openly resolved, in case of need, to meet force by 
force. But the Emperor, though urged by Eome to take 
violent measures, was not prepared, as hide 3d Luther had 
guessed, for such a sudden stroke. He preferred to adopt 
a more peaceful and mediating course, and to attempt 
once more to settle the differences by a mixed commission 
of fourteen, and afterwards by a new and smaller committee, 
in which Melancthon alone represented the Evangelical 
theologians. 

The Protestants had now to consider seriously the 
question of a possible submission which Melancthon had 
hitherto been anxiously pondering with himself. Luther's 
view of the entire standpoint and interests of the Eomish 
Church' was now confirmed by the fact that her representa- 
tives attached less importance to the more profound differ- 
ences of doctrine in regard to the inward means of salvation, 
than to the restoration of episcopal rights and forms of 
worship, such as, in particular, the mass and the Sacrament 
in both kinds, which formed the principal difficulties during 
the negotiations. On the other hand, no one had taught 
more clearly than Luther the freedom which belongs to 
Christians in outward forms of constitution and worship, 
and which enables them to yield to and serve each other on 
these very points. But he had none the less earnestly cau- 
tioned against making concessions to ecclesiastical tyrants, 
who might make use of them to enslave and mislead souls. 
In this respect Melancthon now showed himself entirely 
resolved. He longed for a restoration of the Catholic 
episcopacy for the Evangelicals, not only for the sake of 
peace, but because he despaired of securing otherwise a 
genuine regulation of the Church in the face of arbitrary 
princes and undisciplined multitudes. In fact the Pro- 



422 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

testants on this commission were willing to promise lawful 
obedience to the bishops, if only the questions of service 
and doctrine were left to a free Council. As regarded the 
service of the mass the point at issue was whether the 
Protestants could not and ought not to accept it with its 
whole act of priestly sacrifice, if only an explanation were 
added as to the difference between this sacrifice and the 
sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross. Other Protestants, on 
the contrary, especially the representatives of Nuremberg, 
became suspicious and angry at such a way of settling 
matters, and especially at the behaviour of Melancthon. 
Spengler at Nuremberg wrote accordingly to Luther. The 
situation was all the more critical, since the negotiations, 
according to the wish of the Emperor, were to proceed 
uninterruptedly, and there was no time to obtain an opinion 
from Coburg. 

Luther now, to whom the Elector submitted the Articles 
which were to bring about an agreement, sent a very calm, 
clear answer, entering into all the particulars. He gave a 
purely practical judgment, though resting upon the highest 
principles. Thus, with regard to the mass, he says that 
the Catholic liturgy contained the inadmissible idea that 
we must pray to God to accept the Body of His Son as 
a sacrifice ; if this were to be explained in a gloss, either 
the words of the liturgy would have to be falsified by the 
gloss, or the gloss by the words of the liturgy. It would 
be wrong and foolish to run into danger unnecessarily 
about so troublesome a word. He warned Melancthon 
especially against the power of the bishops. He knew well 
that obedience to them meant a restriction of the freedom 
of the gospel ; but the bishops would not consider them- 
selves equally bound, and would declare it a breach of faith 
if everything that they wished were not observed. He 
then quietly expressed his conviction that the whole 
attempt at negotiation was a vain delusion. It was 
wished to make the Pope and Luther agree together, but 



THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 423 

the Pope was unwilling and Luther begged to be excused. 
Firmly and calmly he relied on the consciousness, whatever 
happened, of his own independence and strength. Thus 
he wrote to Spengler : * I have commended the matter to 
God, and I think also I have kept it so well in hand 
that nobody can find me defenceless on any point so long 
as Christ and I are united.' To Spalatin he wrote : ' Free 
is Luther, and free also is the Macedonian (Philip of Hesse). 
. . . Only be brave and behave like men ! ' We have 
taken this from letters rich in similar thoughts, addressed 
by Luther on August 26 to the Elector John, Melancthon, 
Spalatin, and Jonas, and from other letters written two 
days after to the three last-named friends and to Spengler. 
He likewise wrote for Brenz on the 26th a preface to his 
Exposition of the Prophet Amos. This preface shows us 
how Luther himself judged his own words which he sent 
forth with such power. His own speech, he says, is a wild 
wood, compared with the clear, pure flow of Brenz's lan- 
guage ; it was, to compare small things with great, as if his 
was the strong spirit of Elijah, the wind tearing up the 
rocks, and the earthquake and fire, whereas Brenz's was the 
* still, small voice.' Yet God needs also rough wedges for 
rough logs, and together with the fruitful rain He sends 
the storm of thunder and lightning to purify the air. 

If, however, Protestantism was then threatened by 
danger from mistaken concessions, the danger was soon 
averted by the demands of its opponents, who went too far 
even for a Melancthon. The proceedings of the smaller 
committee had likewise to be closed without any result. 
On September 8 Luther was able at last to tell his wife 
that he hoped soon to return home ; to his little Hans he 
promised to bring a 'beautiful large book of sugar,' which 
his cousin Cyriac, who had travelled with Luther to Augsburg 
and Nuremberg, had brought for him out of that ' beautiful 
garden.' On the 14th he received a visit from Duke John 
Frederick and Count Albert of Mansfeld upon their return 



424 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

from the Diet. The former brought him the signet ring, 
which, however, was too large even for his thumb ; he re- 
marked that lead, not gold, was fitting for him. He only 
wished he could see his other friends also escaped from 
Augsburg; and although the Duke was ready to take him 
away with him, he preferred to remain behind at Coburg, 
in order, as he wrote to Melancthon, to receive them there 
and wipe off their perspiration after their hot bath. 

At Augsburg negotiations were re-opened with Melanc- 
thon and Briick ; the Nuremberg deputy even thought it 
necessary to complain in the strongest terms of an ' under- 
hand unchristian stratagem ' against which Melancthon 
would no longer listen to a word of remonstrance ; and 
Luther, who heard of these complaints through Spengler 
and Link, expressed indeed his full confidence to his Saxon 
theologians, and was particularly anxious not to wound 
Melancthon, but earnestly and pressingly begged him and 
Jonas, on the 20th of the month, to inform him about the 
matter, to be on their guard against the crafty attacks of 
their enemies, and to renounce finally all idea of a com- 
promise. While, however, these letters were on their way 
past Nuremberg through Spengler 's hands, it was already 
known there that the new attempt, especially that against 
the constancy of Jonas and Spalatin, had shipwrecked, 
and Spengler consequently did not forward them to their 
address. The Evangelical States adhered to their Protest 
of 1529 and to the Imperial Lecess of 1526. 

The Emperor made known his displeasure at this result, 
but found that even those princes who were most zealous 
against the innovations, were not equally .zealous to plunge 
into at least a doubtful war f-r the extirpation of heresy, and 
the aggrandisement, moreover, of the Emperor's authority 
and power, and accordingly he resolved to put off the de- 
cision. On the 22nd he announced a Eecess, which gave 
the Protestants, whose Confession, it was stated, had been 
publicly heard and refuted, time till the 15th of the fol 



THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 425 

lowing April for consideration whether, in the matter oi 
the articles in dispute, -they would return to unity with the 
Church, Pope, and Empire. The Emperor, meanwhile, 
engaged to bring about the meeting of a Council within a 
year, for the removal of real ecclesiastical grievances, but 
reserved until that period the consideration of what further 
steps should eventually be taken. The Evangelicals pro- 
tested that their Confession had never been refuted, and pro- 
ceeded to lay before the Emperor an apology for it, drawn up < 
by Melancthon. They accepted the time offered for considera- 
tion. So far then the promise was given of the political 
peace which Luther had wished and hoped for. Referring 
to the other dangers and menaces before them, he said to 
Spengler : 'We are cleared and have done enough; the 
blood be upon their own head.' 

Yet another attempt at union came to Luther at Coburg 
from quite a different quarter. Strasburg, and three other 
South German towns, Constance, Memmingen, and Lindau, 
differing as they did from the Lutherans in the Sacramental 
controversy, had laid before the Diet a Confession of their 
own — the so-called Tetrapolitana. They too, like Zwingli, 
refused to recognise any partaking of the Body of Christ 
by the mouth and body of the receiver, but at the same 
time, unlike him, they based their whole view of the 
Eucharist on the assumption of a real Divine gift and a 
spiritual enjoyment of the ' real Body ' of Christ. On the 
strength of this view, Butzer, the theological representative 
of Strasburg, sought to make further overtures to the 
Wittenbergers. He was not deterred by Melancthon's mis- 
trustful opposition or by Luther's leaving a letter of his un- 
answered. He now appeared in person at the Castle of 
Coburg, and on September 25 had a confidential and 
friendly interview with Luther. The latter still refused 
to content himself with a mere ' spiritual partaking,' and, 
though demanding above all things entire frankness, did not 
himself conceal a constant suspicion. However, he himself 



426 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

began to hope for good results, and assured Butzer ha 
would willingly sacrifice his life three times over, if thereby 
this division might be put an end io. This fortunate be- 
ginning encouraged Butzer to further attempts, which he 
made afterwards in private. 

The day after the reading of the Becess, the Elector 
John was able at length to leave the Diet and set forward on 
his journey home. The Emperor took leave of him with 
these words: 'Uncle, Uncle, I did not look for this from 
you.' The Elector, with tears in his eyes, went away in 
silence. After staying a short time at Nuremberg, he paid 
a visit, with his theologians, to Luther. They left Coburg 
together on October 5, and travelled by Altenburg, where 
Luther preached on Sunday, the 9th, to the royal residence 
at Torgau. After Luther had also preached here on the 
following Sunday, he returned to his home. 



427 



CHAPTEE VI. 

FEOM THE DIET OF AUGSBURG TO THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF 
NUREMBERG, 1532. DEATH OF THE ELECTOR JOHN. 

No sooner had Luther resumed his official duties at Witten- 
berg, than he again undertook extra and very arduous work. 
Bugenhagen went in October to Liibeck, as he had pre- 
viously gone to Brunswick and Hamburg. The most im- 
portant advance made by the Reformation during those 
years when its champions had to fight so stoutly at the 
Diets for their rights, was in the North German cities. 
Lulher, soon after his arrival at Coburg, had received news 
that Liibeck and Luneburg had accepted the Reformation. 
The citizens of Liibeck refused to allow any but Evangelical 
preachers, and abolished all non- evangelical usages, though 
an opposition party appealed to the Emperor, and actually 
induced him to issue a mandate rjrohibiting the innovations. 
To organise the new Church, the Lubeckers would have 
preferred the assistance of Luther himself; but failing 
him, their delegates begged the Elector John, when at 
Augsburg, to send them at least Bugenhagen. Under these 
circumstances Luther agreed that Bugenhagen should be 
allowed to go, although the Wittenberg congregation and 
university could hardly spare him. His friend was wanted 
at Wittenberg, said Luther, all the more because he him- 
self could not be of any use much longer ; for what with 
his failing years and his bad health, so weary was he of 
life that this accursed world would soon have seen and 
suffered the last of him. 

Nevertheless, he again undertook at once, so far as his 



428 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

health permitted, the official duties of the town pastor, who 
this time was absent from Wittenberg for a year and a half, 
until April 1532 ; Luther, accordingly, not only preached 
the weekly sermons on Wednesdays and Saturdays, on the 
Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John, but attended con- 
tinuously to the care of souls and the ordinary business of 
his office. He would reproach himself with the fact that 
under his administration the poor-box of the church was 
neglected, and that he was often too tired and too lazy to 
do anything. The pains in his head, the giddiness, and the 
affections of his heart now recurred, and grew worse in 
March and June 1531, while the next year they developed 
symptoms of the utmost gravity and alarm. 

All this time he worked with indefatigable industry to 
finish his translation of the Prophets ; in the autumn of 
1531 he told Spalatin that he devoted two hours daily to 
the task of correction. He brought out a new and revised 
edition of the Psalms, and published some of them with a 
practical exposition. 

In addition to these literary labours, which ever re- 
mained his first delight, Luther's chief task was to advise 
his Elector upon the salient questions, transactions, and 
dangers of Church politics, which, with the Piecess of the 
Diet and the period thereby allotted for oheir consideration, 
had become matters of real urgency. And, in fact, it was 
to his valuable and conscientious advice that the Protestants 
in general throughout the Empire looked for guidance. 

On November 19 the Eecess of the Diet, passed in de- 
fiance of the Protestants, was published at Augsburg. They 
accepted the time allowed them for consideration, but the 
Emperor and the Empire insisted on maintaining the 
old ordinances of the Church, and the Protestants were 
now required to surrender the ecclesiastical and monastic 
property in their hands. The latter observed, moreover, 
that the Eecess contained no actual promise of peace on 
the part of the Emperor, but that the States only were 



TO THE RELIGIOUS PEACE -OF NUREMBERG. 429 

commanded to keep peace. In fact, the Emperor had 
already promised the Pope on October 4 to employ all his 
force to suppress the Protestants. He immediately sub- 
jected the Supreme Court of the Empire— the so-called 
Imperial Chamber — to a visitation, and instructed it to 
enforce strictly the contents of the Eecess in ecclesiastical 
and religious matters. Thus the campaign against the 
Protestants was to begin with the institution of processes 
at law, with reference particularly to the question of Church 
property. Furthermore, to secure the authority and continue 
the policy of the Emperor during his absence, his brother 
Ferdinand was to be elected King of the Komans. John 
of Saxony, the only Protestant among the Electors, opposed 
the election. He appealed to the fact that the nomination 
was a direct violation of a decision of imperial law, the 
Golden Bull, which declared that the proposal for such an 
election, during the lifetime of the Emperor, must first be 
unanimously resolved on by the Electors. The Emperor 
had a Papal brief in his hands which empowered him to ex- 
clude John, as a heretic, from electing, but he did not find 
it prudent to make use of it. The election actually took 
place on January 5, 1531. 

The Protestants now sought for protection in a firm, 
well-organised union among themselves. They assembled 
for this purpose at Schmalkald at Christmas 1530. 

The more imminent, however, the danger to be en- 
countered, the more necessary it became to determine the 
question whether it was lawful to resist the Emperor. The 
jurists who arvised in favour of resistance, adduced certain 
arguments, without, however, stating any very clear or 
forcible reasons of law. They quoted principles of civil 
law, to show that a judge, whose sentence is appealed against 
to a higher court, has no right to execute it by force, and 
that if he does so, resistance may lawfully be offered him ; 
and they proceeded to apply this analogy to the appeal of 
the Protestants to a future Council, and the action taken 



43o RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

against them, while their appeal was still pending, by the 
Emperor. They were nearer the mark when they argued 
that, according to the constitution of the Empire and the 
imperial laws themselves, the sovereignty of the Emperor 
was in no sense unlimited or incapable of being resisted ; 
but then the difficulty here was, that the right of individual 
States to oppose decrees, passed at a regular Diet by the 
Emperor and the majority of the members present, was 
not yet proved. There was a general want of clearness and 
precision connected with the theories then being developed 
of the relations of the different States and the interpretation 
of their rights. Upon this matter, then, Luther was called 
on again, with the other Wittenberg theologians, to give 
an opinion. The jurists also, especially the chancellor 
Br lick, were associated with them in their deliberations. 

On the question about Ferdinand's election as King of 
Kome, Luther strongly advised his Elector to give way. 
The danger which, in the event of his refusal, menaced 
both himself and the whole of Germany appeared to Luther 
far too serious to justify it. The occasion would be used to 
deprive him of the Electorship, and perhaps give it to Duke 
George ; and Germany would be rent asunder and plunged 
into war and misery. This, said Luther, was his advice ; 
adding, however, that as he held such a humble position 
in the world, he did not understand to give much advice 
in such important matters, nay, he was ' too much like a 
child in these worldly affairs.' 

But a change had now come hi his views about the 
right of resistance; a change which, though in reality but 
an advance upon his earlier principles, led to an opposite 
result. He taught that civil authorities and their ordinances 
were distinctly of God, and by these ordinances he under- 
stood, according to the Apostle's words, the different laws 
of different States, so far as they had anywhere acquired 
stability. With regard to Germany, as we have seen, his 
good monarchical principles did not as yet prevent his hold- 



TO THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF NUREMBERG. 43* 

ing the opinion that the collective body of the princes of the 
Empire could dethrone an unworthy Emperor. The deter- 
mining question with him now was what the law of the 
Empire or the edict of the Emperor himself would de- 
cide, in the event of resistance being offered by individual 
States of the Empire, which found themselves and their 
subjects injured in their rights and impeded in the fulfil- 
ment of their duties. The answer to this, however, he 
conceived to be a matter no longer for theologians, but for 
men versed in the law, and for politicians. Theologians 
could only tell him that though, indeed, a Christian, simply 
as a Christian, must willingly suffer wrong, yet the secular 
authorities, and therefore every German prince having 
authority, were bound to uphold their office given them by 
God, and protect their subjects from wrong. As to what 
were the established ordinances and laws of .each individual 
State, that was a matter for jurists to decide, and for the 
princes to seek their counsel. Accordingly, the Wittenberg 
theologians declared as their opinion that if those versed 
in the law could prove that in certain cases, according to 
the law of the Empire, the supreme authority could be 
resisted, and that the present case was one of that descrip- 
tion, not even theologians could controvert them from 
Scripture. In condemning previously all resistance, they 
said, they ' had not known that the sovereign power itself 
was subject to the law.' The net result was that the allies 
really considered themselves justified in offering resistance 
to the Emperor, and prepared to do so. The responsibility, 
as Luther warned them, must rest with the princes and 
politicians, inasmuch as it was their duty to see that they 
had right on their side. ' That is a question,' he said, 
* which we neither know nor assert : I leave them to act.' 

Luther gave open vent to his indignation at the Eecess 
of the Diet and the violent attacks of the Catholics in two 
publications, early in 1531, one entitled * Gloss on the sup- 
posed Edict of the Emperor,' and the other, * Warning to 



432 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

his beloved Germans.' In the former he reviewed the 
contents of the Edict and the calumnies it heaped upon the 
Evangelical doctrines, not intending, as he said, to attack his 
Imperial Majesty, but only the traitors and villains, be they 
princes or bishops, who sought to work their own wicked will, 
and chief of all the arch-rogue, the so-called Vicegerent of 
God, and his legates. The other treatise contemplates the 
' very worst evil ' of all that then threatened them, namely, 
a war resulting from the coercive measures of the Emperor 
and the resistance of the Protestants. As a spiritual pastor 
and preacher he wished to counsel not war, but peace, as all 
the world must testify he had always been the most diligent 
in doing. But he now openly declared that if, which God 
forbid, it came to war, he would not have those who defended 
themselves against the bloodthirsty Papists censured as 
rebellious, but would have it called an act of necessary de- 
fence, and justify it by referring to the law and the lawyers. 

These publications occasioned fresh dealings with Duke 
George, who again complained to the Elector about them, 
and also about certain letters falsely ascribed to Luther, and 
then published a reply, under an assumed name, to his first 
pamphlet. Luther answered this ' libel ' with a tract en- 
titled ' Against the Assassin at Dresden,' not intended, as 
many have supposed, to impute murderous designs to the 
Duke, but referring to the calumnies and anonymous attacks 
in his book. The tone employed by Luther in this tract 
reminds us of his saying that ' a rough wedge is wanted 
for a rough log.' It brought down upon him a fresh ad- 
monition from his prince, in reply to which he simply begged 
that George might for the future leave him in peace. 

The imminence of the common danger favoured the at- 
tempts of the South German States to effect an agreement 
with the German Protestants, and the efforts of Butzer in 
that direction. Luther himself acknowledged in a letter to 
Butzer, how very necessary a union with them was, and 
what a scandal was caused to the gospel by their rupture 



TO THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF NUREMBERG. 433 

hitherto, nay, that if only they were united, the Papacy, the 
Turks, the whole world, and the very gates of hell would 
never be able to work the gospel harm. Nevertheless, his 
conscience forbade him to overlook the existing differences 
of doctrine ; nor could he imagine why his former opponents, 
if they now acknowledged the Eeal Presence of the Body at 
the Sacrament, could not plainly admit that presence for 
the mouth and body of all partakers, whether worthy or 
unworthy. He deemed it sufficient at present, that each 
party should desist from writing against the other, and wait 
until ' perhaps God, if they ceased from strife, should 
vouchsafe further grace.' The new explanations, however, 
were enough to make the Schmalkaldic allies abandon their 
scruples to admitting the South Germans, and they were 
accordingly received into the league. 

Thus then, at the end of March 1531, a mutual de- 
fensive alliance for six years of the members of the Schmal- 
kaldic League was concluded between the Elector John, the 
Landgrave Philip, three Dukes of Brunswick Luneburg, 
Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt, Counts Albert and Gebhard of 
Mansfeld, the North German towns of Magdeburg, Bremen, 
and Liibeck, and the South German towns of Strasburg, 
Constance, Memmingen, and Lindau, and also Ulm, Keut- 
lingen, Bibrach, and Isny. Even Luther no longer raised 
any objections. 

By this alliance the Protestants presented a firm and 
powerful front among the constituent portions of the 
German Empire. Their adversaries were not so agreed 
in their interests. Between the Dukes of Bavaria, and 
between the Emperor and Ferdinand, political jealousy 
prevailed to an extent sufficient to induce the former to 
combine with the heretics against the newly-elected King. 
Outside Germany, Denmark reached the hand of fellowship 
to the Schmalkaldic League; for the exiled King of Denmark, 
Christian II., who had previously turned to the Saxon 
Elector and been friendly to Luther, now sought, after 

F F 



434 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

returning in all humility to the orthodox Church, to regain 
his lost sovereignty with the help of his brother-in-law, the 
Emperor. The King of France also was equally ready to 
make common cause with the Protestant German princes 
against the growing power of Charles V. 

As for Luther, we find no notice on his part of the 
schemes and negotiations connected with these political 
events, much less any active participation in them. There 
was just then a rupture pending between Henry VIII. of 
England and the Emperor, and the former was preparing to 
secede from the Church of Eome. Henry was anxious for a 
divorce from his wife Katharine of Arragon, an aunt of the 
Emperor, on the ground of her previous marriage with his 
deceased brother, which, as he alleged, made his own mar- 
riage with her illegal ; and since the Pope, in spite of long 
negotiations, refused, out of regard for the Emperor, to ac- 
cede to his request, Henry had an opinion prepared by a 
number of European universities and men of learning, on 
the legality and validity of his' marriage, which in fact for 
the most part declared against it. A secret commissioner 
of the former ' Protector of the Faith ' was then sent to the 
Wittenbergers, and to Luther, whom he had so grossly 
insulted. Luther, however, pronounced (Sept. 5, 1531) 
against the divorce, on the ground that the marriage, though 
not contrary to the law of God as set forth in Scripture, 
was prohibited by the human law of the Church. The poli- 
tical side of the question he disregarded altogether. He 
expressed himself to Spalatin, in a certain tone of sadness, 
about the Pope's evil disposition towards the Emperor, the 
intrigues he seemed to be promoting against him in France, 
and the animosity of Henry VIII. towards him on account 
of his decision on the marriage ; and added, ' Such is the 
way of this wicked world ; may God take our Emperor 
under His protection ! ' 

With Charles V. and Ferdinand the question of peace or 
war was, of necessity, largely governed by the menacing 



TO THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF NUREMBERG. 435 

attitude of the Turks ; in fact it determined their policy in 
the matter. Luther kept this danger steadily in view ; after 
the publication of the Eecess he promised the wrath of God 
upon those madmen who would enter upon a war while they 
had the Turks before their very eyes. Ferdinand in vain 
sought to conclude a treaty of peace with the Sultan, who 
demanded him to surrender all the fortresses he still 
possessed in a part of Hungary, and reserved the right of 
making further conquests. He was even induced, in March 
1531, to advise his brother to effect a peaceful arrange- 
ment with the Protestants, in order to ensure their assistance 
in arms. Attempts at reconciliation were accordingly 
made through the intervention of the Electors of the Palati- 
nate and Mayence. The term allowed by the Diet (April 15) 
passed by unnoticed. The Emperor also directed the ' sus- 
pension of the proceedings, which he had been authorised 
by the Eecess of Augsburg to set on foot in religious matters, 
till the approaching Diet.' 

The negotiations were languidly protracted through the 
summer, without effecting any definite result. An opinion, 
drawn up jointly by Luther, Melancthon, and Bugenhagen, 
advised against an absolute rejection of the proposed 
restoration of episcopal power ; the only thing necessary 
to insist upon being that the clergy and congregations 
should be allowed by the bishops the pure preaching of the 
gospel which had hitherto been refused them. 

About this time Luther had the grief of losing his 
mother. She died on June 30, after receiving from her son 
a consolatory letter in her last illness. Of his own physical 
suffering in this month we have already spoken. On the 
26th, he wrote to Link that Satan had sent all his mes- 
sengers to buffet him (2 Cor. xii. 7), so that he could only 
rarely write or do anything : the devil would probably soon 
kill him outright. And yet not his will would be done, but 
the will of Him vho had already overthrown Satan and 
all his kingdom. 

r v 2 



436 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

Soon afterwards, the desire of the Catholics for coercive 
measures was stimulated afresh by the news of a defeat 
which the Eeformed cities in Switzerland had sustained at 
the hands of the five Catholic Cantons, notwithstanding 
that the balance of force inclined there far more than in 
Germany to the side of the Evangelicals. The struggle 
which Luther was perpetually endeavouring to avert from 
Germany, culminated in Switzerland in a bloody outbreak, 
mainly at Zwingli' s instigation. Zwingli himself fell on 
October 11 in the battle of Cappel, a victim of the patriotic 
schemes by which he had laboured to achieve for his 
country a grand reform of politics, morality, and the 
Church, but for which he had failed to enlist any intelli- 
gent or unanimous co-operation on the part of his compa- 
nions in faith. Ferdinand triumphed over this first great 
victory for the Catholic cause. He was now ready to 
renounce humbly his claim upon Hungary, so that, by 
making peace with the Sultan, he might leave his own and 
the Emperor's hands free in Germany. Luther saw in the 
fate of Zwingli another judgment of God against the spirit 
'of Munzer, and in the whole course of the war a solemn 
warning for the members of the Schmalkaldic League not 
to boast of any human alliance, and to do their utmost to 
preserve peace. 

But the events in Switzerland gave no handle against 
those who had not joined the Zwinglians, nor were even 
the latter weakened thereby in power and organisation. 
The South Germans had now to cling all the more firmly 
to their alliance with the Lutheran princes and cities ; the 
Zwinglian movement suffered shortly afterwards (Dec. 1) 
a severe loss in the death of Oecolampadius. Finally 
the Sultan was not satisfied with Ferdinand's repeated 
offers, but prepared for a new campaign against Austria 
in the spring of 1532, and towards the end of April he set 
out for it. 

This checked the feverous desire of Germans for war 






TO THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF NUREMBERG. 43? 

against their fellow-countrymen, and brought to a practical 
result the negotiations for a treaty which had been con- 
ducted early in 1532 at Schweinfurt, and later on at 
Nuremberg. They amounted to this : that all idea of an 
agreement on the religious and ecclesiastical questions in 
dispute was abandoned until the hoped-for Council should 
take place, and that, as had long been Luther's opinion, 
they should rest content with a political peace or modus 
vivendi, which should recognise both parties in the position 
they then occupied. The main dispute was on the further 
question, how far this recognition should extend ; — whether 
only to the Schmalkaldic allies, the immediate parties to 
the present agreement, or to such other States of the 
Empire as might go over to the new doctrine from the old 
Church — which still remained the established Church of 
the Emperor and the Empire in general— and, perhaps 
further, to Protestant subjects of Catholic princes of the 
Empire. There was also still the question as to the validity 
of Ferdinand's election as King of Eome. Luther was 
again and again asked for his opinion on this subject. 

He was just then suffering from an unusually severe 
attack, which incessantly reminded him of his approaching 
end. In addition, he was deeply concerned about the 
health of his beloved Elector. Early in the morning of 
January 22 he was seized again, as his friend Dietrich, who 
lived with him, informs us, with another violent attack in 
his head and heart. His friends who had come to him 
began to speak of the effect his death would have on the 
Papists, when he exclaimed, ' But I shall not die yet, I am 
certain. God will never strengthen the Papal abominations 
by letting me die now that Zwingli and Oecolampadius are 
just gone. Satan would no doubt like to have it so : he 
dogs my heels every moment ; but not his will will be done, 
but the Lord's.' The physician thought that apoplexy was 
imminent, and that if so, Luther could hardly recover. 
The attack however seems to have quickly passed away, but 



438 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

Luther's head remained racked with pain. A few weeks 
later, towards the end of February, he had to visit the 
Elector at Torgau, who was lying there in great suffering, 
and had been compelled to have the great toe of his left 
foot amputated. Luther writes thence about himself to 
Dietrich, saying that he was thinking about the preface to 
his translation of the Prophets, but suffered so severely 
from giddiness and the torments of Satan, that he well-nigh 
despaired of living and returning to Wittenberg. ' My 
head,' he says, ' will do no more : so remember that, if I 
die, your talents and eloquence will be wanted for the 
preface.' For a whole month, as he remarked at the 
beginning of April, he was prevented from reading, writing, 
and lecturing. He informed Spalatin, in a letter of May 
20, which Bugenhagen wrote for him, that at present, God 
willing, he must take a holiday. And on June 13 he told 
Amsdorf that his head was gradually recovering through 
the intercessions of his friends, but that he despaired of 
regaining his natural powers. 

Notwithstanding this condition and frame of mind, 
Luther continued to send cordial, calm, and encouraging 
words of peace, concerning the negotiations then pending, 
both to the Elector John and his son John Frederick. 

Concerning Ferdinand's election Luther declared to 
these two princes on February 12, and again afterwards, 
that it must not be allowed to embarrass or prevent a treaty 
of peace. If it violated a trifling article of the Golden 
Bull, that was no sin against the Holy Ghost, and God 
could show the Protestants, for a mote like this in the eyes 
of their enemies, whole beams in their own. It must 
needs be an intolerable burden to the Elector's conscience 
if war were to arise in consequence, — a war which might 
* well end in rending the Empire asunder and letting in the 
Turks, to the ruin of the Gospel and everything else.' 

An opinion, drawn up on May 16 by Luther and 
Bugenhagen, was equally decided in counselling submission 



TO THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF NUREMBERG. 439 

on the question as to the extension of the trace, if 
peace itself depended upon it. For if the Emperor, he 
said, was now pleased to grant security to the now existing 
Protestant States, he did so as a favour and a personal 
privilege. They could not coerce him into showing the 
same favour to others. Others must make the venture by 
the grace of God, and hope to gain security in like manner. 
Everyone must accept the gospel at his own peril. 

Luther began already to hear the reproach that to 
adopt such a course would be to renounce brotherly love, 
for Christians should seek the salvation and welfare of 
others besides themselves. He was reproached again with 
disowning by his conduct the Protestant ideal of religious 
freedom and the equal rights of Confessions. Very dif- 
ferently will he be judged by those who realise the legal 
and constitutional relations then existing in Germany, and 
the ecclesiastico-political views shared in common by Pro- 
testants and Catholics, and who then ask what was to be 
gained by a course contrary to that which he advised in 
the way of peace and positive law. That the sovereigns of 
Catholic States should secure toleration to the Evangelical 
worship in their own territories was opposed to those general 
principles by virtue of which the Protestant rulers took pro- 
ceedings against their Catholic subjects. According to those 
principles, nothing was left for subjects who resisted the 
established religion of the country but to claim free and un- 
molested departure. Luther observed with justice, ' What 
thou wilt not have done to thee, do not thou to others.' With 
regard to the further question as to the princes who should 
hereafter join the Protestants, it certainly sounds naive to 
hear Luther speak of a present mere act of favour on the 
part of the Emperor. But he was strictly right in his idea, 
that a concession, involving the separation of some of the 
States of the Empire from the one Church system hitherto 
established indivisibly throughout the Empire, and their 
organisation of a separate Church, had no foundation 



440 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

whatever in imperial law as existing before and up to the 
Keformation, and could in so far be regarded simply as a 
free concession of the Emperor and Empire to individual 
members of the general body ; who, therefore, had no 
right to compel the extension of this concession to others, 
and thereby hazard the peace of the Empire. Something 
had already been gained by the fact that at least no limi- 
tation was expressed. A door was thus left open for exten- 
sion at a future time ; and for those who wished to profit 
by this fact, the danger, if only peace could be assured, 
was at any rate diminished. If we may see any merit in 
the fact that the German nation at that time was spared a 
bloody war, unbounded in its destructive results, and that 
a peaceful solution was secured for a number of years, that 
merit is due in the first place to the great Eeformer. He 
acted throughout like a true patriot and child of his Father- 
land, no less than like a true Christian teacher and adviser 
of conscience. 

The negotiations above described involved the further 
question about a Council, pending which a peaceful agree- 
ment was now effected. In the article providing for the 
convocation of a ' free Christian Council,' the Protestants 
demanded the addition of the words, ' in which questions 
should be determined according to the pure Word of God.' 
On this point, however, Luther was unwilling to prolong the 
dispute. He remarked with practical wisdom that the 
addition would be of no service ; their opponents would in 
any case wish to have the credit of having spoken accord- 
ing to the pure Word of God. 

In June bad news came again from Nuremberg, tending 
to" the belief that the Papists had thwarted the work of 
peace. Luther again exclaimed, as he had done after the 
Diet of Augsburg, ' Well, well ! your blood be upon your 
own heads ; we have done enough.' 

Towards the end of the month, when the Elector again 
invited his opinion, he repeated, with even more urgency 



TO THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF NUREMBERG. 441 

than before, his warnings to those Protestants also who 
were ' far too clever and confident, and who, as their 
language seemed to show, wished to have a peace not open 
to dispute.' He begged the Elector, in all humility, to 
'write in earnest a good, stern letter to our brethren,' that 
they might see how much the Emperor had graciously 
conceded to them which could be accepted with a good 
conscience, and not refuse such a gracious peace for the 
sake of some paltry, far-fetched point of detail. God would 
surely heal and provide for such trifling defects. 

On July 23 the peace was actually concluded at 
Nuremberg, and signed by the Emperor on August 2. 
Both parties were mutually to practise Christian toleration 
until the Council was held ; one of these parties being ex- 
pressly designated as the Schmalkaldic allies. The value 
of this treaty for the maintenance of Protestantism in 
Germany was shown by the indignation displayed by the 
Papal legates from the first at the Emperor's concessions. 

The Elector John was permitted to survive the conclu- 
sion of the peace, which he had been foremost among the 
princes in promoting. Shortly after, on August 15, he 
was seized with apoplexy when out hunting, and on the fol- 
lowing day he breathed his last. Luther and Melancthon, 
who were summoned to him at Schweinitz, found him un- 
conscious. Luther said his beloved prince, on awakening, 
would be conscious of everlasting life ; just as when he 
came from hunting on the Lochau heath, he would not know 
what had happened to him ; as said the prophet (Isaiah 
lvii. 1, 2), ' The righteous is taken away from the evil to 
come. He shall enter into peace ; they shall rest in their 
beds.' Luther preached at his funeral at Wittenberg, as he 
had done seven years before at his brother's, and Spalatin 
tells us how he wept like a child. 

John had, throughout his reign, laboured conscientiously 
to follow the Word of God, as taught by Luther, and to 
encounter all dangers and difficulties by the strength oi 



442 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH. 

faith. He has rightly earned the surname of ' the Stead* 
fast.' Luther especially praises his conduct at the Diet of 
Augsburg in this respect ; he frequently said to his coun- 
cillors on that occasion, ' Tell my men of learning that they 
are to do what is right, to the praise and glory of God, with- 
out regard to me, or to my country and people.' Luther dis= 
tinguished piety and benevolence as the two most prominent 
features of his character, as wisdom and understanding 
had been those of the Elector Frederick's. ' Had the two 
princes,' he said ; ' been one, that man would have been a 
marvel.' 



PAET VI. 

FROM THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF NUREMBERG 
TO THE DEATH OF LUTHER. 



CHAPTER I. 

LTJTHEK UNDEE JOHN FREDERICK. 1532-34. 

Political peace had been the blessing which Luther hoped 
to see obtained for his countrymen and his Church, during 
the anxious time of the Augsburg Diet. Such a peace had 
now been gained by the development of political relations, 
in which he himself had only so far co-operated as to ex- 
hort the Protestant States to practise all the moderation in 
their power. He saw in this result the dispensation of a 
higher power, for which he could never be thankful enough 
to God. For the remainder of his life he was permitted to 
enjoy this peace, and, so far as he could, to assist in its pre- 
servation. In the enjoyment of it he continued to build on 
the foundations prepared for him under the protecting 
patronage of Frederick the Wise, and on which the first 
stone of the new Church edifice had been laid under the 
Elector John. 

A longer time was given him for this work than he had 
anticipated. We have had occasion frequently to refer not 
only to his thoughts of approaching death, but also to the 
severe attacks of illness which actually threatened to prove 
fatal. Although these attacks did not recur with such dan- 
gerous severity in the later years of his life, still a sense of 
weakness and premature old age invariably remained behind 



444 LUTHER'S LATER YEARS ASD DEATH. 

them. Exhaustion, caused by his work and the struggles he 
had undergone, debarred him from exertion for which he had 
all the will. He constantly complained of weakness in the 
head and giddiness, which totally unfitted him for work, 
especially in the morning. He would break out to his 
friends with the exclamation, ' I waste my life so uselessly, 
that I have come to bear a marvellous hatred towards my- 
self. I don't know how it is that the time passes away so 
quickly, and I do so little. I shall not die of years, but of 
sheer want of strength.' In begging one of his friends at a 
distance to visit him once more, he reminds him that, in his 
present state of health, he must not forget that it might be 
for the last time. No wonder then if his natural excitability 
was often morbidly increased. He always looked forward 
with joy to his leaving this ' wicked world,' but as long as 
he had to work in it, he exerted all his powers no less for 
his own immediate task than for the general affairs of the 
Church, which incessantly demanded his attention. 

The mutual trust and friendship subsisting between the 
Beformer and his sovereign continued unbroken with John's 
son and successor, John Frederick. This Elector, born in 
1503, had, while yet a youth, embraced Luther's teaching 
with enthusiasm, and leaned upon him as his spiritual 
father. Luther, on his side, treated him with a confidential, 
easy intimacy, but never forgot to address him as ' Most 
illustrious Prince ' and ' Most gracious Lord.' When the 
young man assumed the Electorship, and appeared at 
Wittenberg a few days after his father's death, he at once 
invited Luther to preach at the castle and to dine at his 
table. Luther expressed indeed to friends his fear that the 
many councillors who surrounded the young Elector might 
try to exert evil influences upon him, and that he might 
have to pay dearly for his experience. It might be, he 
said, that so many dogs barking round him would make 
him deaf to anyone else. For instance, they might take a 
grudge against the clergy and cry out, if admonished by 



LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 445 

theni, what can a mere clerk know about it ? But his 
relations with his prince remained undisturbed. He saw 
with joy how the latter was beginning to gather up the 
reins which his gentle-minded father had allowed to grow 
too slack, and he hoped that if God would grant a few 
years of peace, John Frederick would take in hand real and 
important reforms in his government, and not merely com- 
mand them but see them executed. 

The Elector's wife, Sybil, a princess of Juliers, shared 
her husband's friendship for Luther. The Elector had 
married her in 1526, after taking Luther into his confidence, 
and being warned by him against needlessly delaying the 
blessing which God had willed to grant him. On what a 
footing of cordial intimacy she stood with both Luther and 
his wife, is shown by a letter she wrote to him in January 
1529, while her husband was away on a journey. She says 
that she will not conceal from him, as her ' good friend and 
lover of the comforting Word of God,' that she finds the 
time very tedious now that her most beloved lord and 
husband is away, and that therefore she would gladly have 
a word of comfort from Luther, and be a little cheerful 
with him ; but that this is impossible at Weimar, so far off 
as it is, and so she commends all, and Luther and his dear 
wife, to the loving God, and will put her trust in Him. 
She begs him in conclusion : ' You will greet your dear 
wife very kindly from us, and wish her many thousand 
good-nights, and if it is God's will, we shall be very glad 
to be with her some day, and with you also, as well as with 
her : this you may believe of us at all times.' In the last 
years of his life Luther had to thank her for similar 
greetings and inquiries after his own health and that of his 
family. 

In the tenth year of the new Elector's reign Luther 
was able publicly and confidently to bear witness against 
the calumnies brought against his government. ' There is 
now,' he said ' thank God, a chaste and honourable manner 



446 LUTHER'S LATER YEARS AND DEATH. 

of life, truthful lips, and a generous hand stretched out to 
help the Church, the schools, and the poor ; an earnest, 
constant, faithful heart to honour the Word of God, to 
punish the bad, to protect the good, and to maintain peace 
and order. So pure also and praiseworthy is his married 
life, that it can well serve as a beautiful example for 
all, princes, nobles, and everyone— a Christian home as 
peaceful as a convent, which men are so wont to praise. 
God's Word is now heard daily, and sermons are well 
attended, and prayer and praise are given to God, to say 
nothing of how much the Elector himself reads and writes 
every day.' Only one thing Luther could not and would 
not justify, namely, that at times the Elector, especially 
when he had company, drank too much at table. Un- 
happily the vice of intemperance prevailed then not only 
at court but throughout Germany. Still John Frederick 
could stand a big drink better than many others, and, with 
the exception of this failing, even his enemies must allow 
him to have been endued with great gifts from God, and 
all manner of virtues becoming a praiseworthy prince and 
a chaste husband. Luther's personal relations with the 
Elector never made him scruple to express to him freely, in 
his letters, words of censure as well as of praise. 

In his academical lectures Luther devoted his chief 
labours for several terms after 1531 to St. Paul's Epistle 
to the Galatians. He had already commenced this task 
before and during the contest about indulgences, his object 
having been to expound to and impress upon his hearers 
and readers the great truth of justification by faith, set 
forth in that Epistle with such conciseness and power . 
This doctrine he always regarded as a fundamental verity 
and the groundwork of religion. In all its fulness and clear- 
ness, and with all his old freshness, vigour, and intensity of 
fervour, he now exhaustively discussed this doctrine. His 
lectures, published, with a preface of his, by the Wittenberg 
chaplain Eorer in 1535, contain the most complete and 



LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK, 447 

classical exposition of his Pauline doctrine of. salvation. 
In the introduction to these lectures he declared that it 
was no new thing that he was offering to men, for by the 
grace of God the whole teaching of St. Paul was now made 
known ; but the greatest danger was, lest the devil should 
again filch away that doctrine of faith and smuggle in once 
more his own doctrine of human works and dogmas. It 
could never be sufficiently impressed on man, that if the 
doctrine of faith perished, all knowledge of the truth would 
perish with it, but that if it flourished, all good things would 
also flourish, namely, true religion, and the true worship 
and glory of God. In his preface he says : ' One article — the 
only solid rock — rules in my heart, namely, faith in Christ : 
out of which, through which, and to which all my theological 
opinions ebb and flow day and night.' To his friends he 
says of the Epistle to the Galatians : ' That is my Epistle, 
which I have espoused : it is my Katie von Bora.' 

His sermons to his congregation were now much hin- 
dered by the state of his health. It was his practice, how- 
ever, after the spring of 1532, to preach every Sunday at 
home to his family, his servants, and his friends. 

But his greatest theological work, which he intended 
for the service of all his countrymen, was the continuation 
and final conclusion of his translation of the Bible. After 
publishing in 1532 his translation of the Prophets, which 
had cost him immense pains and industry, the Apocrypha 
alone remained to be done ; — the books which, in bringing 
out his edition of the Bible, he designated as inferior in 
value to the Holy Scriptures, but useful and good to read. 
Well might he sigh at times over the work. In November 
1532, being then wholly engrossed with the book of Sirach, 
he wrote to his friend Amsdorf saying that he hoped to 
escape from this treadmill in three weeks, but no one can 
discover any trace of weariness or vexation in the German 
idiom in which he clothed the proverbs and apophthegms of 
this book. Notwithstanding the length of time which his 



448 LUTHER'S LATER YEARS AND DEATH, 

task occupied, and his constant interruptions, it has turned 
out a work of one mould and casting, and shows from the 
first page to the last how completely the translator was 
absorbed in his theme, and yet how closely his life and 
thoughts were interwoven with those of his fellow country- 
men, for whom he wrote and whose language he spoke. 
In 1534 the whole of his German Bible was at length in 
print, and the next year a new edition was called for. Of 
the New Testament, with which Luther had commenced 
the work, as many as sixteen original editions, and more 
than fifty different reimpressions, had appeared up to 1533. 
With regard to the wants of the Church, Luther looked 
to the energy of the new Elector for a vigorous prosecution 
of the work of visitation. A reorganisation of the Church 
had been effected by these means, but many more evils had 
been exposed than cured, nor had the visitations been yet 
extended to all the parishes. The Elector John had already 
called on Lather, together with Jonas and Melancthon, for 
their opinion as to the propriety of resuming them, and 
only four days before his death he gave instructions on the 
subject to his chancellor Bruck. John Frederick, in the 
first year of his rule, did actually put the new visitation 
into operation, in concert with his Landtag. The main 
object sought at present was to bring about better discipline 
among the members of the various congregations, and to 
put down the sins of drunkenness, unchastity, frivolous 
swearing, and witchcraft. Luther and even Melancthon 
were no longer required to give their services as visitors : 
Luther's place on the commission for Electoral Saxony 
was filled by Bugenhagen. His own views ' and prospects 
in regard to the condition of the people remained gloomy. 
He complains that the Gospel bore so little fruit against 
the powers of the flesh and the world ; he did not ex- 
pect any great and general change through measures of 
ecclesiastical law, but trusted rather to the faithful preach- 
ing of the Divine Word, leaving the issue to God. It was 



LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 449 

particularly the nobles and peasants whom he had to 
rebuke for open or secret resistance against this Word. 
He exclaims in a letter to Spalatin, written in 1533 : '0 
how shamefully ungrateful are our times ! Everywhere 
nobles and peasants are conspiring in our country against 
the Gospel, and meanwhile enjoy the freedom of it as in- 
solently as they can ; God will judge in the matter ! ' He 
had to complain besides of indifference and immorality in 
his immediate neighbourhood, among his Wittenbergers. 
Thus he addressed, on Midsummer Day 1534, after his 
sermon, a severe rebuke to drunkards who rioted in taverns 
during the time of Divine service, and he exhorted the 
magistrates to do their duty by proceeding against them, 
so as not to incur the punishment of the Elector or of God. 
The territories of Anhalt, immediately adjoining the 
dominions of the Saxon Elector, now openly joined the 
Evangelical Confession, of which their prince, Wolfgang of 
Kothen, had long been a faithful adherent; and Luther 
contracted in this quarter new and close friendships, like 
that which subsisted between himself and his own Elector. 
Anhalt Dessau was under the government of three nephews 
of Wolfgang, namely, John, Joachim, and George. They 
had lost their father in early life. One of them had for his 
guardian the strictly Catholic Elector of Brandenburg, the 
second, Duke George of Saxony, and the third, the Cardinal 
Archbishop Albert. George, born in 1507, was made in 1518 
canon at Merseburg, and afterwards prebendary of Magde- 
burg cathedral. The Cardinal had taken peculiar interest 
in him ever since his boyhood, on account of his excellent 
abilities, and he did honour to his office by his fidelity, zeal, 
and purity of life. The new teaching caused him severe 
internal struggles. His theological studies showed him 
how rotten were the foundations of the Eomish system, 
but, on the other hand, the new doctrine awakened suspicions 
on his part lest, with its advocacy of gospel liberty and 

G G 



45o LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

justification by faith, it might tempt to sedition and iim 
morality. But it finally won his heart, when he learned to 
know it in its pure form through the Augsburg Confession 
and the Apology of Melancthon, while the Catholic Refuta- 
tion drawn up for the Diet of Augsburg excited his disgust. 
His two brothers, whose devoutness of character their 
enemies could no more dispute than his own, became 
converts also to Protestantism. In 1532 they appointed 
Luther's friend Nicholas Hausmann their court-preacher, 
and invited Luther and Melancthon to stay with them at 
Worlitz. George, in virtue of his office as archdeacon 
and prebendary of Magdeburg, himself undertook the visi- 
tation, and had the candidates for the office of preacher 
examined at Wittenberg. Luther eulogised the two brothers 
as ' upright princes, of a princely and Christian disposition/ 
adding that they had been brought up by worthy and God- 
fearing parents. He kept up a close and intimate friend- 
ship with them, both personally and by letter. A disposi 
fcion to melancholy on the part of Joachim gave Lather an 
opportunity of corresponding with him. While cheering 
him with spiritual consolation, he recommended him to 
seek for mental refreshment in conversation, singing, music, 
and cracking jokes. Thus he wrote to him in 1534 as 
follows : ' A merry heart and good courage, in honour and 
discipline, are the best medicine for a young man —aye, for 
all men. I, who have spent my life in sorrow and weari- 
ness, now seek for pleasure and take it wherever I can 
a . . . Pleasure in sin is the devil, but pleasure shared with 
good people in the fear of God, in discipline and honour, 
is well-pleasing to God. May your princely Highness be 
always cheerful and blessed, both inwardly in Christ, and 
outwardly in His gifts and good things. He wills it so, and 
for that reason He gives us His good things to make use of, 
that we may be happy and praise Him for ever.' 

During these years, the negotiations concerning the 
general affairs of the Church, the restoration of harmony in 



LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 451 

the Christian Church of the West, and the internal union 
of the Protestants, still proceeded, though languidly and 
with little spirit. 

With the promise, and pending the assembly, of a 
Council, the Eeligious Peace had been at length concluded. 
Before the close of 1532 the Emperor actually succeeded in 
inducing Pope Clement, at a personal interview with him at 
Bologna, to announce his intention to convoke a Council 
forthwith. He urged him to do so by frightening him with 
the prospect of a German national synod, such as even the 
orthodox States of the Empire might resolve on, in the 
event of the Pope obstinately opposing a Council, and in 
that case, of a possible combination of the entire German 
nation against the Papal see. He knew, indeed, well 
enough, that the Holy Father, in making this promise, had 
no intention whatever of keeping it. The Pope now sent a 
nuncio to the German princes, to make preparations for 
giving effect to his promise ; the Emperor sent with him 
an ambassador of his own, as well for his control as his 
support. 

When the nuncio and ambassador reached John Frede- 
rick at Weimar, the Elector consulted with Luther, Bugen- 
hagen, Jonas, and Melancthon about the object of their 
coming, and for that purpose, on June 15, 1533, he came in 
person to Wittenberg, and had an opinion drawn up in 
writing. The Papal invitation to the Council stated that, 
agreeably with the demands of the Germans, it should be a 
free Christian Council, and also that it should be held in ac- 
cordance with ancient usage as from the beginning. Luther 
declared that this was merely a ' muttering in the dark,' 
half angel-like, half devil-like. For if by the words ' from 
the beginning' were meant the primitive Christian 
assemblies, such as those of the Apostles (Acts xv.), then 
the Council now intended was bound to act according to 
the Word of God, freely, and without regard to any future 
Councils ; a Council on the other hand, held according to 

G G 2 



452 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

previous usage, as, for example, that of Constance, was a 
Council contrary to the Word of God, and held in mere 
human blindness and wantonness. The Pope, in describing 
the Council proposed by himself as a free one, was making 
sport of the Emperor, the request of the Evangelicals, and 
the decrees of the Diet. How could the Pope possibly 
tolerate a free Christian Council when he must be quite 
aware how disadvantageous such a Council would be to 
himself ? Luther's advice was briefly summed up in this : 
to restrict themselves to the bare formalities of speech 
required, and to wait for further events. ' I think it is 
best,' he said, 'not to busy ourselves at present with any- 
thing more than what is necessary and moderate, and that 
can give no handle to the Pope or the Emperor to accuse 
us of intemperate conduct. Whether there be a Council 
or not, the time will come for action and advice.' And 
it soon became clear enough, that Clement at any rate 
would not convene a Council. He now entered into an 
understanding with King Francis, who was again meditating 
an attack against the power of Charles Y., listened to his 
proposal that the Council might be abandoned, and in 
March 1534 announced to the German princes that, agree- 
ably to the King's wish, he had resolved to adjourn its 
convocation. 

How firmly Luther persisted — Council or no Council — 
in his uncompromising opposition to the Eomish system, 
was now shown by several of his new writings, more 
especially by his treatise ' On private Masses and the 
Consecration of Priests.' Concerning private masses, and 
the sacrifice of Christ's Body supposed to be there offered, 
he now declared that, where the ordinance of Christ was 
so utterly perverted, Christ's Body was assuredly not 
present at all, but simple bread and simple wine was wor- 
shipped by the priest in vain idolatry, and offered for others 
to worship in like manner. He knew how they would 
'come rolling up to him with the words, " Church, Church; 



LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 453 

custom, custom," just as they had answered him once before 
in his attack on indulgences ; but neither the Church nor 
custom had been able to preserve indulgences from their 
fate.' In the Church, even under the Popedom, he 
recognised a holy place, for in it was baptism, the read- 
ing of the Gospel, prayer, the Apostles' Creed, &c. But he 
repeats now, what he had said in his most pungent writings 
during the earlier struggles of the Reformation, namely, 
that devilish abominations had entered into this place, and 
so penetrated it with their presence, that only the light of 
the Holy Spirit would enable one to distinguish between 
the place itself and these abominations. He contrasts the 
mass-holding priests and their stinking oil of consecration 
with the universal Christian priesthood and the evangelical 
office of preacher. To the principle of this priesthood he 
still firmly adhered, faithless though he saw the large mass 
of the congregations to the priestly character with which 
baptism had invested them, and strictly as he had to guide 
his action, in the appointment and outward constitution of 
that office, by existing circumstances and historical require- 
ments. Thus he repeats what he had said before, ' We 
are all born simple priests and pastors in baptism ; and out 
of such born priests, certain are chosen or called to certain 
offices, and it is their duty to perform the various functions 
of those offices for us all.' This universal priesthood he 
would assert and utilise in the celebration of Divine service 
and in the true Christian mass ; and he appeals for that 
purpose to the true worship of God by an Evangelical 
congregation. ' There,' he says, ' our priest or minister 
stands before the altar, having been duly and publicly 
called to his priestly office ; he repeats publicly and dis- 
tinctly Christ's words of institution ; he takes the Bread 
and Wine, and distributes it according to Christ's words ; 
and we all kneel beside and around him, men and women, 
young and old, master and servant, mistress and maid, 
all holy priests together, sanctified by the Blood of Christ. 



454 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

And. in such our priestly dignity are we there, and (as 
pictured in Eevelations iv.) we have our crowns of gold 
on our heads, harps in our hands, and golden censers ; 
and we do not let our priest proclaim for himself the 
ordinance of Christ, hut he is the mouthpiece of us all, 
and we all say it with him from our hearts, and with 
sincere faith in the Lamh of God, Who feeds us with His 
Body and Blood.' 

In 1533 Erasmus published a work wherein he en- 
deavoured to effect in his own way the restoration of unity 
in the Church, by exhorting men to abolish practical 
abuses and show submission in doctrinal disputes, profess- 
ing for his own part unvarying subjection to the Church. 
In opposition to him, Luther hit the right point in a 
preface he wrote to the reply of the Marburg theologian 
Corvinus. Erasmus, he said, only strengthened the Papists, 
who cared nothing about a safe truth for their consciences, 
but only kept on crying out ' Church, Church, Church.' 
For he too kept on simply repeating that he wished to 
follow the Church, whilst leaving everything doubtful and 
undetermined until the Church had settled it. ' What,' asks 
Luther, ' is to be done with those good souls, who, bound in 
conscience by the word of Divine truth, cannot believe doc- 
trines evidently contrary to Scripture ? Shall we tell them 
chat the Pope must be obeyed so that peace and unity may 
be preserved ? ' When, therefore, Erasmus sought to ob- 
tain unity of faith by mutual concession and compromise, 
Luther answered by declaring such unity to be impossible, 
for the simple reason that the Catholics, by their very 
boasting of the authority of the Church, absolutely refused 
on their part to make any concession at all. But so far as 
c unity of charity ' was concerned, he held that on that point 
the Evangelicals needed no admonishment, for they were 
read}^ to do and suffer all things, provided nothing was im- 
posed upon them contrary to the faith. They had never 
thirsted for the blood of their enemies, though the latter 



LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 455 

would gladly persecute them with fire and sword. As for 
Erasmus himself, Luther, as already stated, simply re- 
garded him as a sceptic, who with his attitude of subjection to 
the Church, sought only for peace and safety for himself 
and his studies and intellectual enjoyments. Acting on 
this view, Luther, in a letter to Amsdorf, written in 1534, 
and intended for publication, heaped reproaches on Eras- 
mus which undoubtedly he uttered in honest zeal, but in 
which his zeal did not allow him to form an impartial 
estimate of his opponent or his writings. He saw the bad 
spirit of Erasmus reflected in other men, who, like him, 
had seen the true character of the Komish Church, but, 
like him also, rejoined her communion. Instances of this 
were found in his old friend Crotus, who had now entered 
the service of Cardinal Albert, and as his ' plate-licker,* 
as Luther called him, abused the Keformation ; and in 
the theologian George Wit z el, a pupil of Erasmus and 
student at Wittenberg, who formerly had been suspected 
even of sympathising with the peasants in their rebellion, 
and of rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity, but who now 
wished for a Keformation after Erasmus' ideas, and was 
one of the foremost literary opponents of the Lutheran 
Keformation. Luther, however, deemed it superfluous, 
after all that he had said against the master, to turn 
also against his subordinates, and the mere mouthpieces 
of his teaching. 

In addition to Luther's polemics against Catholicism in 
general, must be mentioned a fresh quarrel with Duke 
George. The latter, in 1532, had expelled from Saxony 
some evangelically disposed inhabitants of Leipzig and 
Oschatz, decreed that everyone should appear once a year 
at church for confession, and ordered some seventy or 
eighty families of Leipzig, who had refused to do so, to 
quit his dominions. Luther sent letters, which were after- 
wards published, of comfort to the exiled, and of exhortation 
and advice to those who were threatened. Duke George 



456 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

thereupon complained to the Elector that Luther was ex 
citing his subjects to sedition. Luther, in reply, spoke 
out again with double vehemence in a public vindication, 
whilst George made Cochlaeus write against him. Further 
quarrelling was ended by the two princes agreeing, in 
November 1533, to settle certain matters in dispute, 
and their theologians also were commanded to keep at 
peace. With regard to the future, however, Luther had 
spoken words of significance and weight to his persecuted 
brethren at Leipzig, when he reminded them what great 
and unexpected things God had done since the Diet of 
Worms, and how many bloodthirsty persecutors He had 
since then snatched away. 'Let us wait a little while,' 
he said, ' and see what God will bring to pass. Who knows 
what God will do after the Diet of Augsburg, even before 
ten years have gone by ? ' 

Firmly, however, as Luther refused to listen to any 
surrender in matters of faith, or to any subjection to a 
Catholic Council of the old sort, he desired no less to adhere 
loyally to the ' political concord.' His whole heart and 
sympathies, as a fellow- Christian and a good German, went 
out with the German troops in their march against the 
Turks, who he hoped might be well routed by the Em- 
peror. He never reflected how perilous the consequences 
of a decisive victory by Charles V. over his foreign enemies 
would be for the Protestants of Germany, and how divided, 
therefore, these must feel, at least in their hopes and wishes, 
during the progress of the war. He only saw in him again 
the ' dear good Emperor.' He wished him like success 
against his evil-minded French enemy. The Pope especi- 
ally he reproached for his persistent ill-will to the Emperor. 
The Popes, he said, had always been hostile to the Em- 
perors, and had betrayed the best of them and wantonly 
thwarted their desires. 

Early in 1534 Philip of Hesse set in earnest about his 
scheme, so momentous for Protestantism, of forcibly ex- 



LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 457 

pelling King Ferdinand from Wiirtemberg, and restoring it 
to the exiled Duke Ulrich. The latter, whom the Swabian 
League in 1519, upon a decision of the Emperor and 
Empire, had deprived of his territory, and transferred it to 
the House of Austria, was staying with the Landgrave in 
1529, with whom he attended the conference at Marburg, 
and shared his views on Church matters. Since then the 
Swabian League was dissolved, and Philip seized this favour- 
able opportunity to interfere on behalf of his friend. The 
King of France promised his aid, and in Germany, especi- 
ally among the Catholic Bavarians, a strong desire prevailed 
to weaken the power of Austria. Luther's public judg- 
ment being of such weight, and his counsels so influential 
with the Elector Frederick, Philip informed him, through 
pastor Ottinger of Cassel, of his preparations for war, lest 
he might otherwise be wrongly given to understand that he 
was meditating a step against the Emperor. His inten- 
tion, he declared, was merely to ' restore and reinstate 
Duke Ulrich to his rights in all fairness,' in the sight of 
God and of his Imperial Majesty. He ' belonged to no 
faction or sect : ' — this, wrote Ottinger, he was ' instructed 
by his princely Highness not to conceal from Luther.' The 
latter, however, at a conference with his Elector and the 
Landgrave at Weimar, protested against a breach of the 
public peace, as tending to bring disgrace upon the gospel ; 
and the Elector, in consequence, kept aloof from the enter- 
prise. Philip, however, persisted, and carried it through 
with rapidity and success. Ferdinand, being helpless in 
the absence of the Emperor, consented, in the treaty of 
Cadan, to the restoration of Ulrich, who immediately set 
about a reformation of the Church in Wiirtemberg. Luther 
recognised in this result the evident hand of God, in that, 
contrary to all expectation, nothing was destroyed and peace 
was happily restored. God would bring the work to an end. 
Meanwhile the Schmalkaldic allies clung tenaciously to 
their league, and were intent on still further strengthening 



4>8 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

their position and preparing themselves for all emergencies. 
No scruples as to whether, if the Emperor should break 
the peace, they could venture to turn their arms against 
him, any longer disturbed them. The terms extorted 
from King Ferdinand by the Landgrave's victorious cam- 
paign, were also in their favour. Ferdinand, in the treaty 
of Cadan, promised to secure them against the suits which 
the Imperial Chamber, notwithstanding the Religious 
Peace, still continued to institute against them, in return 
for which John Frederick and his allies consented to recog- 
nise his election as King of the Romans. 

And in the interests and for the objects represented by 
the league, namely, to oppose a sufficiently strong and com- 
pact power to Roman Catholicism and its menaces, those 
farther attempts were now made to promote internal union 
among the Protestants, to which Butzer had so unremit- 
tingly devoted his labours, and which the Landgrave Philip 
among the princes considered of the utmost value. 

Luther, although he admitted having formed a more 
favourable opinion of Zwingli as a man, since their personal 
interview at Marburg, in no way altered his opinion of 
Zwinglianism or of the general tendency of his doctrines. 
Thus in a letter of warning sent by him in December 1532 
to the burgomaster and town-council of Munster, he classed 
Zwingli with Miinzer and other heads of the Anabaptists, as 
a band of fanatics whom God had judged, and pointed out 
that whoever once followed Zwingli, Miinzer, or the Ana- 
baptists, would very e .Lsily be seduced into rebellion and 
attacks on civil government. At the beginning of the next 
year he published a ' Letter to those at Frankfort-on-the- 
Main,' in order to counteract the Zwinglian doctrines and 
agitations there prevailing. He also warned the people of 
Augsburg against their preachers, inasmuch as they pre- 
tended to accept the Lutheran doctrine of the Sacrament, 
but in reality did nothing of the kind. He abstained from 
entering into any further controversy against the substance 



LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 459 

of doctrines opposed to his own. He was concerned not 
so much about the victory of his own doctrine, which he left 
with confidence in God's hands, but lest, under the guise of 
agreement with him, error should creep in and deceit be 
practised in a matter so sacred and important. He always 
felt suspicious of Butzer on this point. 

He now saw the evil and terrible fruits of that spirit 
which had possessed Miinzer and the Anabaptists, — such 
fruits as he had always expected from it. In Minister, 
where his warning had passed unregarded, the Anabaptists 
had been masters since February 1534. As the pretended 
possessors of Christianity in its intellectual and spiritual 
purity, they established there a kingdom of the saints, with 
a mad, sensual fanaticism, a coarse worship of the flesh, 
and a wild thirst for blood. This kingdom was demolished 
the next year by the combined forces of the Emperor and 
the bishop, but a further consequence of their defeat was 
the exclusion of Protestantism from the city, which sub- 
mitted again to episcopal authority. About the Zwin- 
glian ' Sacramentarianism ' Luther wrote at that time, 
' God will mercifully do away with this scandal, so that 
it may not, like that of Minister, have to be done away 
with by force.' 

Butzer, however, did not allow himself to be deterred 
or wearied. His wish was that the agreement in doctrine 
which had already been arrived at between Luther and the 
South Germans admitted to the Swabian League, should be 
publicly and emphatically acknowledged and expressed. 
He laboured and hoped to convince even the people of 
Zurich and the other Swiss that they attached — as, in fact, 
they did — too harsh a meaning to Luther's doctrines, and 
so to induce them to reconcile them as nearly as they could 
with their own. But they could not be persuaded further 
than to admit that Christ's Body was really present in the 
Sacrament, as food for the souls of those who partook in 
faith. They were as suspicious, from their standpoint, of 



460 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

his attempts at mediation, as Luther was from his. Butzer 
represented to the Landgrave that the South German towns, 
his allies, were united in doctrine, and that the only objec- 
tion raised by the Swiss was to the notion that Christ and 
His Body became actual ' food for the stomach,' — a notion 
which Luther also refused wholly to entertain. For when 
the latter said that Christ's Body was eaten with the mouth, 
he explained at the same time that the mouth indeed only 
touched the bread and did not reach this Body, and that his 
doctrine was simply a declaration of a sacramental unity, in 




Fig. 43.— Butzee. (From the old original woodcut of Eeusner.) 

so far as the mouth eats the bread which is united with the 
body in the Sacrament. The matter, said Butzer, was a 
mere dispute about words, and was only so difficult to 
settle because they had ' abused and sent each other to the 
devil too much.' 

The Landgrave Philip wrote to Luther, and Luther now 
repeated with warmth his own desire for a ' well-established 
union,' which would enable the Protestants to oppose a 
common front to the immoderate arrogance of the Papists, 



LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 461 

He only warned him again lest the matter should remain 
' rotten and unstable in its foundations.' The Landgrave 
then arranged, with Luther's approval, a conference between 
Melancthon and Butzer at Cassel for December 27, 1534. 
Luther sent to them a ' Consideration, whether unity is pos- 
sible or not.' He repeated in this tract, with studied pre- 
cision and emphasis, those tenets of his doctrine to which 
Butzer had referred. The matter, he said, ought not to 
remain uncertain or ambiguous. But when Butzer now 
agreed with Luther's own opinion, and sent to him at 
Wittenberg an explanation that Christ's Body was truly 
present, but not as food for the stomach, Luther, in 
January 1535, declared as his judgment, that, since the South 
German preachers were willing to teach in accordance with 
the Augsburg Confession, he, for his part, neither could nor 
would refuse such concord ; and since they distinctly con- 
fessed that Christ's Body was really and substantially pre- 
sented and eaten, he could not, if their hearts agreed with 
their words, find fault with these words. He would only 
prefer, as there was still too much mistrust among his own 
brethren, that the act of concord should not be concluded 
quite so suddenly, but that time should be allowed for a 
general quieting down. ' Thus,' he said, ' our people will 
be able to moderate their suspicion or ill-will, and finally let 
it drop; and if thus the troubled waters are calmed on both 
sides, a real and permanent union can be ultimately brought 
about.' Of the Swiss no notice was taken in these nego- 
tiations. 

Meanwhile Butzer and Philip had to rest content with 
this ; and was it not an important step forwards ? This work 
of union, together with the Council which was to help in 
uniting the whole Church, took a prominent place during 
the next few years of Luther's life and labours. 



462 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 



CHAPTEE II. 

NEGOTIATIONS EESPECTING A COUNCIL AND UNION AMONG THE 

PROTESTANTS. THE LEGATE VERGERIUS 1535. THE 

WITTENBERG CONCORD 1536. 

Pope Paul III., who succeeded Clement YIL in October 
1534, seemed at once determined to bring about in reality 
the promised Council. And in fact he was quite earnest in 
the matter. He was not so indifferent as his predecessor 
to the real interests of the Church and the need of certain 
reforms, and he hoped, like a clever politician, to turn the 
Council, which could now no longer be evaded, to the 
advantage of the Papacy. With this object, and with a 
view in particular of arranging the place where the Council 
should be held, which he proposed should be Mantua, he 
sent a nuncio, the Cardinal Yergerius, to Germany. 

In August 1535 Luther was desired by his Elector to 
submit an opinion on the proposals of the Pope. He 
thought it sufficient to repeat the answer he had given two 
years before, namely, that the prince had then fully ex- 
pressed his zeal for the restoration of Church unity by 
means of a Council, but at the same time had required that 
its decisions should be strictly according to God's Word, 
and declared that he could not give any definite consent 
without his allies. Luther still declined, moreover, to 
believe that the project of a Council was sincere. 

The university of Wittenberg had been removed during 
the summer to Jena, on account of a fresh outbreak of 
the plague, or at all events an alarm of it, and there they 
remained till the following February. Luther, however, 



THE COUNCIL AND INTERNAL UNION. 463 

would not listen to the idea of leaving Wittenberg. This 
time he could stay there in all rest and cheerfulness with 
Bugenhagen, and make merry with the idle fears of others. 
To the Elector, who was full of anxiety about him, Luther 
wrote on July 9, saying that only one or two cases of the 
disease had appeared ; the air was not yet poisoned. The 
dog-days being at hand, and the young people frightened, 
they might as well be allowed to walk about, to calm their 
thoughts, until it was seen what would happen. He noticed, 
however, that some had ' caught ulcers in their pockets, 
others colic in their books, and others gout in their 
papers ; ' some, too, had no doubt eaten their mother's 
letters, and hence got heart-ache and homesickness. The 
Christian authorities, he said, must provide some strong 
medicine against such a disease, lest mortality might arise 
in consequence, — a medicine that would defy Satan, the 
enemy of all arts and discipline. He was astonished to 
find how much more was known of the great plague at 
Wittenberg in other parts than in the town itself, where 
in truth it did not exist, and how much bigger and fatter 
lies grew the farther they travelled. He assured his friend 
Jonas, who had gone away with the university, that, thanks 
to God, he was living there in solitude, in perfect health 
and comfort ; only there was a dearth of beer in the town, 
though he had enough in his own cellar. Nor did Luther 
afterwards give way to fear when compelled to acknowledge 
several fatal cases of the plague, and when his own coach- 
man once seemed to be stricken with it. He himself was 
a sufferer, throughout the winter, from a cough and other 
catarrhic affections. ' But my greatest illness,' he wrote 
to a friend, ' is, that the sun has so long shone upon me, — 
a plague which, as you know well, is very common, and 
many die of it.' 

The Papal nuncio now arrived at Wittenberg, and desired 
to speak to Luther in person. After an interview at Halle 
with the Archbishop Albert, he had taken the road through 



464 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

Wittenberg on his way to visit the Elector of Brandenburg 
at Berlin. On the afternoon of November 6, a Saturday, 
he entered Wittenberg in state, with twenty-one horses and 
an ass, intending to take up his quarters there for the 
night, and was received with all due honour at the Elector's 
castle by the governor Metzsch. Luther was invited, at the 
nuncio's request, to sup with him that evening, but as the 
former declined the invitation, he was asked with Bugen- 
hagen to take breakfast with him the next morning. It 
was the first time, since his summons by Caietan at Augs- 
burg in 1518, that Luther had to speak with a Papal 
legate— Luther, who had long since been condemned by the 
Pope as an abominable child of corruption, and who in 
turn had declared the Pope to be Antichrist. So im- 
portant must Verger ius have thought it, to attempt to influ- 
ence, if even only partially, the powerful adviser of the 
Protestant princes, and thereby to prevent him from check- 
mating his plans hi regard to a Council. And in this 
respect Vergerius must have had considerable confidence in 
himself. 

The next morning Luther ordered his barber to come at 
an unusually early hour. Upon the latter expressing his 
surprise, Luther said jokingly, ' I have to go to the Papal 
nuncio ; if only I look young when he sees me, he may 
think " Fie, the devil, if Luther has played us such tricks 
before he is an old man, what won't he do when he is 
one?"' Then, in his best clothes and with a gold chain 
round his neck, he drove to the castle with the town-priest 
Bugenhagen (Pomeranus). 'Here go,' he said, as he stepped 
into the carriage, ' the Pope of Germany and Cardinal 
Pomeranus, the instruments of God ! ' 

Before the legate he ' acted,' as he expressed it, ' the 
complete Luther.' He employed towards him only the 
TQiost indispensable forms of civility, and made use of the 
*most ill-humoured' language. Thus he asked him 
whether he was looked upon in Italy as a drunken 






THE COUNCIL AND INTERNAL UNION 465 

German. When they came to speak about the settlement 
of the Church questions in dispute by a Council, Yergerius 
reminded him that one individual fallible man had no right 
to consider himself wiser than the Councils, the ancient 
Fathers, and other theologians of Christendom. To this 
Luther replied that the Papists were not really in earnest 
about a Council, and, if it were held, they would only care 
to treat about such trifles as monks' cowls, priests' ton- 
sures, rules of diet, and so forth ; whereupon the legate 
turned to one of his attendants, who was sitting by, with 
the words 'he has hit the light nail on the head.' Luther 
went on to assert that they, the Evangelicals, had no need 
of a Council, being already fully assured about their own 
doctrine, though other poor souls might need one, who 
were led astray by the tyranny of the Popedom. Never- 
theless he promised to attend the proposed Council, even 
though he should be burned by it. It was the same to 
him, he said, whether it was held at Mantua, Padua, or 
Florence, or anywhere else. 'Would you come to Bologna?' 
said Vergerius. Luther asked, thereupon, to whom 
Bologna belonged, and on being told ' to the Pope,' 
' Gracious heavens,' he exc] aimed, ' has the Pope seized 
that town too ? — Very well, I will come to you even 
there.' Vergerius politely hinted that the Pope himself 
would not refuse to come to Wittenberg. ' Let him come,' 
said Luther ; ' we shall be very glad to see him.' ' But,' said 
Vergerius, ' would you have him come with arms or with- 
out ? ' 'As he pleases,' replied Luther; ' we shall be ready 
to receive him in either way.' When the legate, after their 
meal, was mounting his horse to depart, he said to Luther, 
' Be sure to hold yourself in readiness for the Council.' 
* Yes, sir,' was the reply, ' with this my very neck and head.' 
Vergerius afterwards related that he had found Luther 
to be coarse in conversation, and his Latin bad, and had 
answered him as far as possible in monosyllables. The 

H H 



466 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

excuse he urged for his interview was that Luther and 
Bugenhagen were the only men of learning at Wittenberg, 
with whom he could converse in Latin. He evidently felt 
himself unpleasantly deceived in the expectations and 
projects he had formed before the meeting. Ten years 
later, when his conflict with Evangelical doctrine had 
taught him thoroughly its real meaning and value, this 
high dignitary himself became a convert to it. 

In the meantime, while the eyes of all were fixed upon 
the approaching Council, the state of affairs in Germany 
was eminently favourable to the Evangelicals. 

The Emperor, during the summer of 1535, was detained 
abroad by his operations against the corsair Chaireddin 
Barbarossa in Tunis, and Luther rejoiced over ths victory 
with which God blessed his arms. The King of France was 
threatening with fresh claims on Italian territory. The 
jealousy between Austria and Bavaria still continued. With 
regard to the Church, King Ferdinand learned to value 
Lutheranism at any rate as a barrier against the progress 
of the more dangerous doctrines of Zwingli. John Frederick 
journeyed in November 1535 to Vienna, to receive from 
him at length, in the name of the Emperor, the investiture 
of the Electorship, and met with a friendly reception. 

Under these circumstances the Schmalkaldic League 
resolved, at a convention at Schmalkald in December 1535, 
to invite other States of the Empire, which were not yet 
recognised in the Beligious Peace as members of the 
Augsburg Confession, to join them. The Dukes Barnim 
and Philip of Pomerania had now accepted this Com 
fession. Philip also married a sister of John Frederick. 
Luther performed the marriage service on the evening of 
February 27 at Torgau, and Bugenhagen pronounced, the 
next morning, the customary benediction on the young 
couple, Luther being prevented from doing so by a fresh 
attack of giddiness. The following spring a convention of 
the allies at Frankfort-on-the-Main received the Duke of 






THE COUNCIL AND INTERNAL UNION. 467 

Wiirtemberg, the Dukes of Pomerania, the princes of 
Anhalt, and several towns into their league. 

Outside Germany, the Kings of France and England 
sought fellowship with the allies. Ecclesiastical and 
religious questions, of course, had first to be considered ; 
and Luther with others was called on for his advice. 

King Francis, so many of whose Evangelical subjects 
ivere complaining of oppression and persecution, was 
anxious, as he was now meditating a new campaign in 
Italy, to secure an alliance with the German Protestants 
against the Emperor, and accordingly pretended with 
great solicitude that he had in. view important reforms in 
the Church, and would be glad of their assistance. They 
were invited to send Melancthon and Luther to him for 
that purpose. With these he negotiated also in person. 
Melancthon felt himself much attracted by the prospect 
thus opened to him of rendering important and useful 
service. The Elector, however, refused him permission 
to go, and rebuked him for having already entangled 
himself so far in the affair. Melancthon's expectations 
were certainly very vain : the King only cared for his 
political interests, and in no case would he grant to any of 
his subjects the right to entertain or act upon religious 
convictions which ran counter to his own theory of the 
Church. Moreover, John Frederick's relations with King 
Ferdinand had by this time become so peaceful, that the 
Elector was anxious not to disturb them by an alliance with 
the enemy of the Emperor. Melancthon, however, was 
much excited by his refusal and reproof; he suspected that 
others had maliciously intrigued against him with his prince. 
Luther, at first moved by Melancthon's wish and the 
entreaties of French Evangelicals, had earnestly begged 
the Elector to permit Melancthon ' in the name of God 
to go to France.' ' Who knows,' he said, ' what God may 
wish to do ? ' He was afterwards startled on his friend's 

H H 2 



468 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

account by the severe letter of the Elector, but was obliged 
to acknowledge that the latter was right in his distrust of 
the affair. 

An alliance with England would have promised greater 
security, inasmuch as with Henry VIII. there was no longer 
any fear of his return to the Papacy, and with regard to 
the proceedings about his marriage, a reconciliation with 
the Emperor was scarcely to be expected. Envoys from 
him appeared in 1535 in Saxony and at the meeting at 
Schmalkald. Henry also wished for Melancthon, in order 
to discuss with him matters of orthodoxy and Church 
government, and Luther again begged permission of the 
Elector for him to go. But it was clearly seen from the 
negotiations conducted with the English envoys in Germany, 
how slender were the hopes of effecting any agreement with 
Henry VIII. on the chief points, such as the doctrine of 
Justification or of the mass, since the English monarch 
insisted every whit as strictly upon that Catholic orthodoxy, 
to which he still adhered, as he did upon his opposition to 
Papal power. Luther had already in January grown sick 
to loathing of the futile negotiations with England : ' pro- 
fessing themselves to be wise, they became fools ' (Eom. i. 
22). He advised therefore, in his opinion submitted to the 
Elector, that they should have patience with respect to 
England and the proper reforms in that quarter, but 
guarded himself against deviating on that account from the 
fundamental doctrines of belief, or conceding more to the 
King of England than they would to the Emperor and the 
Pope. As to contracting a political alliance with Henry, he 
left that question, as a temporal matter, for the prince and 
his advisers to decide ; but it seemed to him dangerous, 
where no real sympathy prevailed. How hazardous it was 
to have anything to do with Henry VIII. was shown im- 
mediately after by his conduct towards his second wife Anna 
Boleyn, whom he had executed on May 19, 1536. Luthei 
called this act a monstrous tragedy. 






THE COUNCIL AND INTERNAL UNION. 469 

Among the German Protestants, however, the negotia- 
tions respecting the Sacramental doctrine were happily 
brought to maturity in a duly formulated ' Concord.' 
Peace also was secured with the Swiss, and therewith the 
possibility of an eventual alliance. 

Now that Luther had once felt confidence in these 
attempts at union, he took the work in hand himself and 
proceeded steadily with it. In the autumn of 1535 he sent 
letters to a number of South German towns, addressed to 
preachers and magistrates — to Augsburg, Strasburg, Ulm, 
and Esslingen. He proposed a meeting or conference, at 
which they might learn to know each other better, and see 
what was to be borne with, what complied with, and what 
winked at. He wished nothing more ardently than to be 
permitted to end his life, now near its close, in peace, charity, 
and unity of spirit with his brethren in the faith. They 
also should ' continue thus, helping, praying, and striving 
that such unity might be firm and lasting, and that the 
devil's jaws might be stopped, who had gloried hugely in 
their wan I of unity, crying out " Ha ! ha ! I have won." ' 
'These letters plainly show how glad was Luther now to see 
the good cause so advanced, and to be able to further it yet 
more. Both in them and in his correspondence with the 
Elector about the proposed meeting, he advised not to en- 
list too many associates, that there might be no restless, 
obstinate heads among them, to spoil the affair. He knew 
of such among his own adherents — men who went too far 
for him in the zeal of dogma. 

The conference was appointed to be held at Eisenach in 
the following spring, on May 14, the fourth Sunday after 
Easter. Luther's state of health would not permit him to 
undertake a journey to any distant place or in the winter. 
Just at this time, moreover, in March 1536, he had been 
tormented for weeks by a new malady, an intolerable pain 
in the left hip. Later on, he told one of his friends that 
he had with Christ risen from the dead at Easter (April 16), 



47Q LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

for he had been so ill at that time, that he firmly believed 
that his time had come to depart and be with Christ, for 
which he longed. 

The South Germans readily accepted the invitation. 
The Strasburgers passed it on to the Swiss, and specially 
desired that Bullinger from Zurich might take part in the 
conference. The Swiss, however, who had received no direct 
invitation from Wittenberg, declined the proposal; they 
wished to adhere simply to their own articles of faith, which 
they had just formulated anew in the so-called ' First 
Helvetian Confession,' and which had expressly acknow- 
ledged at least a spiritual nutriment to be offered in the 
Sacramental symbols. They could not see anything to be 
gained by personal discussion. But they requested that their 
Confession might be kindly shown to Luther, and Bullinger 
sent him special greetings from himself and the Evangelical 
Churches of Switzerland. The preachers who were sent as 
deputies to Eisenach from the various South German towns, 
journeyed by way of Frankfort-on-the-Main, where just then 
the Schmalkaldic allies were assembled. On May 10 they 
went on, eleven in number, to Eisenach ; they represented- 
the communities of Strasburg, Augsburg, Memmmgen, 
Ulm, Esslingen, Beutlingen, Furfeld, and Frankfort. 

At the last moment the whole success, nay even the 
very plan of the conference, was imperilled. Melancthon had 
already been anxious and despondent, fearing a fresh and 
violent outburst of the controversy as a consequence of the 
impending discussion. Luther had just been freshly excited 
against the Zwinglians by a writing found among the papers 
Zwingli left behind him, and which Bullinger had published 
with high eulogiums upon the author, and also by a corre- 
spondence that had just appeared between Zwingli and 
Oecolampadius. Butzer, however, and his friends still 
wished to maintain their intimacy with these Zwinglians, 
and this correspondence was prefaced by an introduction 
from his own pen. Furthermore, letters had reached 



THE COUNCIL AND INTERNAL UNION. 471 

Luther, representing that the people in the South German 
towns were not really taught the true Bodily Presence in 
the Sacrament. In addition to this, severe after-effects of 
his old illness again attacked him, rendering him unfit to 
travel to Eisenach. Accordingly, on May 12 he wrote to 
the deputies begging them to journey as far as Grimma, 
where he would either appear in person, or, if too weak, 
could at all events more easily communicate by writing to 
them and his friends. 

The deputies, however, came straight to him at Witten- 
berg. In Thuringia they were joined by the pastors 
Menius of Eisenach and Myconius of Gotha, two of 
Luther's friends who with him were honestly desirous of 
unity. The constant personal intercourse kept up during 
the journey served greatly to promote a mutual under- 
standing. 

Thus on Sunday, May 21, they arrived at length at 
Wittenberg. 

The next day, the two Strasburgers, Capito and Butzer, 
held a preliminary interview with Luther, whose physical 
weakness made any lengthy negotiations very difficult. 
He expressed to them candidly and emphatically his desire, 
repeated again and again, that they should declare them- 
selves at one with him. He would rather, however, leave 
matters as they had been, than enter into a union which 
might be only feigned or artificial, and must make bad 
worse. With regard to the Zwinglian publications, Butzer 
answered that he and his friends were in no way responsible 
for them, and that the preface, which consisted of a letter 
from himself, had been printed without his knowledge and 
consent. With regard to the doctrine of the Sacrament, 
the only question now left to decide was whether the un- 
worthy and godless communicants verily partook of the 
Lord's Body. Luther maintained that they did : it was to 
him the necessary consequence of a Bodily Presence, such 
as took place simply by virtue of the institution and sure 



472 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

promise of Christ, by which faith must abide in full trust 
and belief. Butzer expressed his decided assent to the 
doctrine of objective Presence and presentation; but the 
actual reception of the Lord's Body, as offered from above, 
he could only concede to those communicants who, at 
least through some faith, placed themselves in an in- 
ward spiritual relation to that Body and accepted the institu* 
tion of Christ, not to those who were simply there with their 
bodies and bodily mouths. To enable one to speak of a par- 
taking of the Body, he was satisfied with that faith which 
was not exactly the right faith of the heart, and was con- 
nected with moral unworthiness, so that such guests ate to 
their own condemnation. He thus acknowledged that the 
unworthy, but not the man wholly devoid of faith, could par- 
take of the Body and Blood of Christ. Luther, therefore, 
could feel assured that Butzer agreed with him in rejecting 
every view which held that, in the Sacrament, the Body of 
Christ was present only in the subjective representation and 
the imagination, or that faith there rose up out of itself, so 
to speak, to the Lord, instead of merely grasping at what was 
offered, and thereby being quickened and made strong. 
But it is unmistakable, that Luther and Butzer conceived 
in different ways both the manner of the Presence and 
the manner of partaking, — each of these, indeed, in a 
mysterious sense and one very difficult to be defined. 
Luther could scarcely have failed to observe the difference, 
which still remained between them, and the defect from 
which, according to his own convictions, the doctrine of the 
South Germans still suffered. The question was, whether 
he could look beyond this, and whether in the doctrine for 
which he had fought so keenly, he should be able and will- 
ing to distinguish between what was essential on the one 
hand, and what was non-essential or less essential on the 
other. 

On the Tuesday all the deputies assembled at his house, 
together with his Wittenberg friends, and Menius and 



THE COUNCIL AND INTERNAL UNION 473 

Myeonius. Butzer having spoken on the deputies' behalf, 
Luther conferred with them separately, and after they had 
declared their unanimous concurrence with Butzer, he with- 
drew with his friends into another room for a private consul- 
tation. On his return, he declared, on behalf of himself and 
his friends, that, after having heard from all present their 
answers and statement of belief, they were agreed with 
them, and welcomed them as beloved brethren in the Lord. 
As to the objection they had about the godless partakers, if 
they confessed that the unworthy received with the other 
communicants the Body of Christ, they would not quarrel 
on that point. Luther, so Myeonius tells us, spoke these 
words with great spirit and animation, as was apparent 
from his eyes and his whole countenance. Capito and 
Butzer could not refrain from tears. All stood with folded 
hands and gave thanks to God. 

On the following days other points were discussed, such 
as the significance of infant baptism, and the practice of 
confession and absolution, as to which an understanding 
was necessary, and was arrived at without any difficulty. 
The South Germans had also to be reassured about some 
individual forms of worship, unimportant in themselves, 
and which they found to have been retained from Catholic 
usage in the Saxon churches. 

On the Thursday the proceedings were interrupted by 
the festival of the Ascension. Luther preached the evening- 
sermon of that day on the text, ' Go ye into all the world, 
and preach the gospel to every creature.' Myeonius relates 
of this sermon, ' I have often heard Luther before, but it 
seemed to me then as if not he alone were speaking, but 
heaven was thundering in the name of Christ.' 

On Saturday Butzer and Capito delivered themselves of 
their commissions on behalf of the Swiss. Luther declared 
after reading the Confession which they brought, that 
certain expressions in it were objectionable, but added a 
wish that the Strasburgers would treat with them further 



474 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

on the subject, and the latter led him to hope that the 
communities in Switzerland, weary of dispute, desired 
unity. 

The spirit of brotherly union received a touching and 
beautiful expression on the Sunday in the common celebra- 
tion of the Sacrament, and in sermons preached by Alber 
of Eeutlingen in the early morning, and by Butzer in the 
middle of the day. 

The next morning, May 29, the meeting concluded 
with the signing of the articles which Melancthon had 
been commissioned to draw up. They recognised the re- 
ceiving of Christ's Body at the Sacrament by those who ' ate 
unworthily,' without saying anything about the faithless. 
The deputies who signed their names declared their common 
acceptance of the Augsburg Confession and the Apology. 
This formula, however, was only to be published after it had 
received the assent of the communities whom it concerned, 
together with their pastors and civil authorities. ' We must 
be careful,' said Luther, ' not to raise the song of victory 
prematurely, nor give others an occasion for complaining 
that the matter was settled without their knowledge and 
in a corner.' Luther himself began on the same Monday 
to write letters, inviting assent from different quarters to 
their proceedings. Among his own associates, at any rate, 
his intimate friend Amsdorf at Magdeburg had not been so 
conciliatory as himself: Luther waited eight days before 
informing him of the result of the conference. 

Thus, then, unity of confession was established for the 
German Protestants, apart from the Swiss, for none of the 
Churches which had been represented at the meeting re- 
fused their assent. Luther now advanced a step towards 
the Swiss by writing to the burgomaster Meyer at Basle, 
who was particularly anxious for union, and who returned 
him a very friendly and hopeful answer. Butzer sought to 
work with them further in the same direction. But they 
could not reconcile themselves to the Wittenberg articles. 






THE COUNCIL AND INTERNAL UNION 475 

They - that is to say, the magistrates and clergy of Zurich, 
Berne, Basle, and some other towns — were content to express 
their joy at Luther's present friendly state of mind, together 
with a hope of future unity, and besought Butzer to inform 
Luther further about their own Confession and their objec- 
tions to his own. Butzer was anxious to do this at a con- 
vention which the Schmalkaldic allies appointed to meet at 
Schmalkald, in view of the Council having been announced 
to be held in February 1537. 



476 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 



CHAPTEE III. 

NEGOTIATIONS RESPECTING A COUNCIL AND UNION AMONG THE 

Protestants (continuation) : — meeting at schmalkald, 

1537. PEACE WITH THE SWISS. — LUTHER'S FRIENDSHIP 

WITH THE BOHEMIAN BRETHREN. 

A few days after the Protestants had effected an agreement 
at Wittenberg the announcement was issued from Eome of 
a Council, to be held at Mantua in the following year. The 
Pope already indicated with sufficient clearness the action 
he intended to take at it. He declared in plain terms that 
the Council was to extirpate the Lutheran pestilence, and 
did not even wish that the corrupt Lutheran books should 
be laid before it, but only extracts from them, and these 
with a Catholic refutation. Luther, therefore, had now to 
turn his energies at once in this direction. 

He agreed, nevertheless, with Melancthon that the 
invitation should be accepted, although the Elector John 
Frederick was opposed to such a Council from the very first. 
It would be better, Luther thought, to protest at the 
Council itself against any unlawful or unjust proceeding. 
He hoped to be able to speak before the assembly at least 
like a Christian and a man. 

The Elector thereupon commissioned him to compile 
and set forth the propositions or articles of faith, which, 
according to his conviction, it would be necessary to insist on 
at the Council, and directed him to call in for this purpose 
other theologians to his assistance. Luther accordingly 
drew up a statement. A few days after Christmas he laid 
it before his Wittenberg colleagues, and likewise before 



FURTHER RECONCILIATION. 477 

Amsdorf of Magdeburg, Spalatin of Altenburg, and Agricola 
of Eisleben. The last named was endeavouring to exchange 
his post at the high school at Eisleben, under the Count of 
Mansfeld, with whom he had fallen out, for a professor's 
chair at Wittenberg, which had been promised him by the 
Elector ; and now, on receiving his invitation to the con- 
ference, he left Eisleben for good without permission, taking 
his wife and child with him. Luther welcomed him as an 
old friend and invited him to his house as a guest. Luther's 
statement was unanimously approved, and sent to the 
Elector on January 3. 

Even in this summary of belief, intended as it was for 
common acceptance and for submission to a Council, Luther 
emphasised, with all the fulness and keenness peculiar to 
himself throughout the struggle, his antagonism to Roman 
Catholic dogma and Churchdom. Fondly as he clung at 
that time to reconciliation among the Protestants, he saw 
no possibility of peace with Eome. 

As the first and main article he declared plainly that 
faith alone in Jesus could justify a man ; on that point they 
dared not yield, though heaven and earth should fall. The 
mass he denounced as the greatest and most horrible 
abomination, inasmuch as it was ' downright destructive of 
the first article,' and as the chiefest of Papal idolatries ; 
moreover, this dragon's tail had begotten many other kinds 
of vermin and abominations of idolatry. With regard to 
the Papacy itself, the Augsburg Confession had been content 
to condemn it by silence, not having taken any notice of it 
in its articles on the essence and nature of the Christian 
Church. Luther now would have it acknowledged, ' that 
the Pope was not by divine right (jure divino) or by warrant 
of God's Word the head of all Christendom,' that position 
belonging to One alone, by name Jesus Christ ; and, 
furthermore, ' that the Pope was the true Antichrist, who 
sets himself up and exalts himself above and against Christ.' 
As for the Council, he expected that the Evangelicals there 



478 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

present would have to stand before the Pope himself and the 
devil, who would listen to nothing, but consider simply how 
to condemn and kill them. They should, therefore, not kiss 
the feet of their enemy, but say to him, ' The Lord rebuke 
thee, Satan ! ' (Zach. hi. 2). 

The allies accordingly were anxious to consult together 
and determine at Schmalkald what conduct to pursue at 
the Council. An imperial envoy and a Papal nuncio wished 
also to attend their meeting. The princes and represen- 
tatives of the towns brought their theologians with them 
to the number of about forty in all. The Elector John 
Frederick brought Luther, Melancthon, Bugenhagen, and 
Spalatin. 

On January 29 the Wittenberg theologians were sum- 
moned by their prince to Torgau. From thence they 
travelled slowly by Grimma and Altenburg, where they 
were entertained with splendour at the prince's castles, 
then by Weimar, where, on Sunday, February 4, Luther 
preached a sermon, and so on to the place of meeting. 
Luther had left his family and house in the care of his 
guest Agricola. On February 7 they arrived at Schmal- 
kald. 

The theologians at first were left unemployed. The 
members of the convention only gradually assembled. The 
envoy of the Emperor came on the 14th. Luther made up 
his mind for a stay there of four weeks. He preached on 
the 9th in the town church before the prince himself. 
The church he found, as he wrote to Jonas, so large 
and lofty, that his voice sounded to him like that of a 
mouse. During the first few days he enjoyed the leisure 
and rejoiced in the healthy air and situation of the place. 

He was already suffering, however, from the stone, 
which had once before attacked him. A medical friend 
ascribed it partly to the dampness of the inns and the 
sheets he slept in. However, the attack passed off easily 
this time, and on the 14th he was able to tell Jonas that h? 



FURTHER RECONCILIATION. 479 

was better. But he grew very tired of the idle time at 
Schmalkald. He said jokingly about the good entertain- 
ment there, that he and his friends were living with the 
Landgrave Philip and the Duke of Wurtemberg like beggars, 
who had the best bakers, ate bread and drank wine with 
the Niirembergers, and received their meat and fish from 
the Elector's court. They had the best trout in the world, 
but they were cooked in a sauce with the other fish ; and 
so on. 

The Elector soon applied to him for an opinion as to 
taking part in the Council, which Luther again recom- 
mended should not be bluntly refused. A refusal, he said, 
would exactly please the Pope, who wished for nothing so 
much as obstacles to the Council ; it was for this reason 
that, in speaking of the extirpation of heresy, he held up 
the Evangelicals as a ' bugbear,' in order to frighten them 
from the project. Good people might likewise object, 
on the ground that the troubles with the Turks and the 
Emperor's engagement in the war with France, were made 
use of by the Evangelicals to refuse the Council, whilst in 
reality the knaves at Kome were reckoning on the Turkish 
and French wars to prevent the Council from coming to 



Luther now received through Butzer the communica- 
tions from Switzerland, together with a letter from Meyer, 
the burgomaster of Basle. To the latter he sent on the 17th 
of tha month a cheerful and friendly reply. He did not 
wish to induce him to make any further explanations and 
promises, but his whole mind was bent upon mutual for- 
giveness, and bearing with one another in patience and 
gentleness. In this spirit he earnestly entreated Meyer to 
work with him. 'Will you faithfully exhort your people,' 
he said, 'that they may all help to quiet, soften, and 
promote the matter to the best of their power, that they 
may not scare the birds at roost.' He promised also, for 
Ms part, ' to do his utmost in the same direction.' 



43o LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

This same day, however, Luther's malady returned ; he 
concluded his letter with the words, ' I cannot write now 
all I would, for I have been a useless man all day, owing to 
this painful stone.' The next day, Sunday, when he 
preached a powerful sermon before a large congregation, 
the malady became much worse, and a week followed of 
violent pain, during which his body swelled, he was con- 
stantly sick, and his weakness generally increased. Several 
doctors, including one called in from Erfurt, did their 
utmost to relieve him. ' They gave me physic,' he said 
afterwards, 'as if I were a great ox.' Mechanical con- 
trivances were employed, but without effect. ' I was 
obliged,' he said, ' to obey them, that it might not look as 
if I neglected my body.' 

His condition appeared desperate. With death before 
his eyas, he thought of his arch-enemy the Pope, who might 
triumph over this, but over whom he felt certain of victory 
even in death. ' Behold,' he cried to God, ' I die an enemy 
of Thy enemies, cursed and banned by Thy foe, the Pope. 
May he, too, die under Thy ban, and both of us stand at 
Thy judgment bar on that day.' The Elector, deeply 
moved, stood by his bed, and expressed his anxiety lest 
God might take away with Luther His beloved Word. 
Luther comforted him by saying that there were many 
faithful men who, by God's help, would become a wall of 
strength ; nevertheless, he could not conceal from the 
prince his apprehension that, after he was gone, discord 
would arise even among his colleagues at Wittenberg. The 
Elector promised him to care for his wife and children as 
his own. Luther's natural love for them, as he afterwards 
remarked, made the prospect of parting very hard for him 
to bear. To his sorrowing friends he still was able to be 
humorous. When Melancthon, on seeing him, began to 
cry bitterly, he reminded him of a saying of their friend, 
the hereditary marshal, Hans Loser, that to drink good 
beer was no art, but to drink sour beer, and then continued, 



FURTHER RECONCILIATION. 481 

in the words of Job, ' What, shall we receive good at the 
hand of God, and shall we not receive evil ? ' And again : 
'The wicked Jews,' he said, 'stoned Stephen; my stone, 
the villain ! is stoning me.' But not for an instant did he 
lose his trust in God and resignation to His will. When 
afraid of going mad with the pain, he comforted himself 
with the thought that Christ was his wisdom, and that 
God's wisdom remained immutable. Seeing, as he did, the 
devil at work in his torture, he felt confident that even if 
the devil tore him to pieces Christ would revenge His 
servant, and God would tear the devil to pieces in return. 
Only one thing he would fain have prayed his God to grant 
— that he might die in the country of his Elector ; but he 
was willing and ready to depart whenever God might 
summon him. Upon being seized with a fit of vomiting 
he sighed, ' Alas, dear Father, take the little soul into Thy 
hand ; I will be grateful to Thee for it. Go hence, thou 
dear little soul, go, in God's name ! ' 

At length an attempt was actually made to remove him 
to Gotha, the necessary medical appliances being not pro- 
curable at Schmalkald. On the 26th of the month the Erfurt 
physician, Sturz, drove him thither, together with Bugen- 
hagen, Spalatin, and Myconius, in one of the Elector's car- 
riages. Another carriage followed them, with instruments 
and a pan of charcoal, for warming cloths. On driving off, 
Luther said to his friends about him, ■ The Lord fill you with 
His blessing, and with hatred of the Pope.' 

The first day they could not venture farther than Tam- 
bach, a few miles distant, the road over the mountains 
being very rough. The jolting of the carriage caused him 
intolerable torture. But it effected what the doctors could 
not. The following night the pain was terminated, and the 
feeling of relief and recovery made him full of joy and thank- 
fulness. A messenger was sent at once, at two o'clock in the 
morning, with the news to Schmalkald, and Luther himself 
wrote a letter to his ' dearly-loved ' Melancthon. To his 

1 1 



482 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

wife he wrote saying, ' I have been a dead man, and had 
commended you and the little ones to God and to our good 
Lord Jesus. ... I grieved very much for your sakes.' 
But God, he went on to say, had worked a miracle with 
him ; he felt like one newly-born ; she must thank God, 
therefore, and let the little ones thank their heavenly 
Father, without whom they would assuredly have lost their 
earthly one. 

But on the 28th already, after his safe arrival at Gotha, 
he suffered so severe a relapse that during that night he 
thought, from his extreme weakness, that his end was near. 
He then gave to Bugenhagen some last directions, which 
the latter afterwards committed to writing, as the ' Confes- 
sion and Last Testament of the Venerable Father.' Herein 
Luther expressed his cheerful conviction that he had done 
rightly in attacking the Papacy with the Word of God. 
He begged his ' dearest Philip ' (Melancthon) and other 
colleagues to forgive anything in which he might have 
offended them. To his faithful Kate he sent words of 
thanks and comfort, saying that now for the twelve years 
of happiness which they had spent together, she must 
accept this sorrow. Once more he sent greetings to the 
preachers and burghers of Wittenberg. He begged his 
Elector and the Landgrave not to be disturbed by the 
charges made against them by the Papists of having 
robbed the property of the Church, and recommended them 
to trust to God in then labours on behalf of the gospel. 

The next morning, however, he was again better and 
stronger. Butzer, who in regard to unity of confession and 
his relations with the Swiss had not been able to have any 
further conversation with Luther at Schmalkald, had at once, 
on receiving the good news from Tambach, gone straight to 
Luther at Gotha, accompanied by the preacher Wolfhart 
from Augsburg. Luther, notwithstanding his suffering, now 
discussed with them this matter, so important in his eyes. 
As an honest man, to whom nothing was so distasteful 



FURTHER RECONCILIATION. 483 

as ' dissimulation,' he earnestly warned them against all 
4 crooked ways.' The Swiss, in case he died, should be 
referred to his letter to Meyer ; should God allow him to 
live and become strong, he would send them a written 
statement himself. 

While, however, he was still at Gotha, the crisis of his 
illness passed, and he was relieved entirely of the cause of 
his suffering. The journey was continued cautiously and 
slowly, and a good halt was made at Weimar. From Wit- 
tenberg there came to nurse him a niece, who lived in his 
house : probably Lene Kaufmann, the daughter of his 
sister. To his wife he wrote from Tambach, telling her 
that she need not accept the Elector's offer to drive her to 
him, it being now unnecessary. On March 14 he arrived 
again at his home. His recovery had made good progress, 
though, as he wrote to Spalatin, even eight days afterwards 
his legs could hardly support him. 

Meanwhile the conference of the allies at Schmalkald 
resulted in their deciding to decline the Papal invitation to 
the Council. They informed the Emperor, in reply, that 
the Council which the Pope had in view was something 
very different to the one so long demanded by the German 
Diets ; what they wanted was a free Council, and one on 
German, not Italian territory. 

With regard to Luther's articles, which he had drawn 
up in view of a Council, they saw no occasion to occupy 
themselves with their consideration. To their official Con- 
fession of Augsburg, which had formed among other things 
the groundwork and charter of the Eeligious Peace, 
and to the Apology, drawn up by Melancthon in reply 
to the Catholic ' Eefutation,' they desired, however, now 
to add a protest against the authority and the Divine 
right of the Papacy. Melancthon prepared it in the true 
spirit of Luther, though in a calmer and more moderate 
tone than was usual with his friend. The majority of the 
theologians present at Schmalkald testified their assent to 

n2 



484 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

Luther's articles by subscribing their names. Luther had 
his statement printed the following year. The Emperor, 
on account of the war with the Turks and the renewal of 
hostilities with France, had no time to think of compelling 
the allies to take part in a Council, and was quite content 
that no Council should be held at all. Whether the Pope 
himself, as Luther supposed, counted secretly on this 
result, and was glad to see it happen, may remain a matter 
of uncertainty. 

At Schmalkald the seal was now set upon the Concord, 
which had been concluded the previous year at Wittenberg, 
and then submitted for ratification to the different German 
princes and towns, the formula there adopted being now 
signed by all the theologians present, and the agreement 
of the princes to abide by it being duly announced. 
Towards the Swiss, who declined to waive their objections 
to the Wittenberg articles, Luther maintained firmly the 
standpoint indicated in his letter to Meyer. Thus, in the 
following December he wrote himself to those evangelical 
centres in Switzerland from which Butzer had brought him 
the communication to Gotha ; while the next year, in May 
1538, he sent a friendly reply to a message from Bullinger, 
and again in June he wrote once more to the Swiss, on 
receiving an answer from them to his first letter. His 
constant wish and entreaty was that they should at least 
be friendly to, and expect the best of one another, until the 
troubled waters were calmed. He fully acknowledged that 
the Swiss were a very pious people, who earnestly wished 
to do what was right and proper. He rejoiced at this, 
and hoped that God, even if only a hedge obstructed, 
would help in time to remove all errors. But he could not 
ignore or disregard that on which no agreement had yet 
been arrived at ; and he was right in supposing, and said 
so openly to the Swiss, that upon their side, as well as 
upon his own, there were many who looked upon unity not 
only with displeasure but even with suspicion. He himself 



FURTHER RECONCILIATION. 485 

had constantly to explain misinterpretations of his doctrine, 
and he did so with composure. He had never, he said, 
taught that Christ, in order to be present at the Sacrament, 
comes down from heaven ; but he left to Divine omnipo- 
tence the manner in which His Body is veriiy given to the 
guests at His table. But he must guard himself, on the 
other hand, against the notion that, with the attitude he 
now adopted, he had renounced his former doctrine. And 
with this doctrine he held firmly to the conception of a 
Presence of Christ's Body in the Sacrament different to 
and apart from that Presence for purely spiritual nourish- 
ment on which the Swiss now insisted. When Bullinger 
expressed his surprise that he should still talk of a dif- 
ference in doctrine, he gave up offering any more explana- 
tions on the subject ; and the Swiss, for their part, after 
his second letter, made no further attempt to effect a more 
perfect agreement. Luther's desire was to keep on terms 
of peace and friendship with them, notwithstanding the 
difference still notoriously existing between both parties. 
On this very account he was loth to rake up the difference 
again by further explanations. By acting thus he believed 
he should best promote an ultimate understanding and 
unity, which was still the object of his hopes. 

So far, therefore, during the years immediately follow- 
ing the death of Zwingli, success had attended the efforts 
to heal the fatal division which separated from Luther and 
the great Lutheran community those of evangelical sympa- 
thies in Switzerland and the South Germans, who were 
more or less subject to their influence, and which had 
excited the minds on both sides with such violence and 
passion. So far Luther himself had laboured to promote 
this result with uprightness and zeal ; he had conquered 
much suspicion once directed against himself, he had 
sought means of peace ; he had restrained the disturbing 
zeal of his own friends and followers, such as Amsdorf or 
Osiander at Nuremberg. 



486 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

We must not omit finally to mention, as an important 
event of these years and a testimony to Luther's disposition 
and sentiments, the friendly relations now formed between 
himself and the so-called Bohemian and Moravian Brethren, 
We have already had occasion to notice, after the Leip- 
zig disputation in 1519, and again, in particular, after 
Luther's return from the Wartburg, an approach, which 
promised much but was only transitory, between Luther 
and the large and powerful brotherhood of the Bohemian 
Utraquists, who, as admirers of Huss and advocates for 
giving the cup to the laity, had freed themselves from the 
dominion of Borne. Quietly and modestly, but with a far 
more penetrating endeavour to restore the purity of Chris- 
tian life, the small communities of the Moravian Brethren 
had multiplied by the side of the Hussites, and had patiently 
endured oppression and persecution. Luther afterwards 
declared of them, how he had found to his astonishment— a 
thing unheard of under the Papacy — that, discarding the 
doctrines of men, they meditated day and night, to the 
best of their ability, on the laws of God, and were well versed 
in the Scriptures. It was principally, however, as Luther 
himself seems to indicate, the commands of Scripture, in 
the strict and faithful fulfilment of which they sought for 
true Christianity — with special reference to the commands 
of Jesus, as expressed by Him in particular in the Sermon 
on the Mount, and to those precepts which they found in 
their patterns, the oldest Apostolic communities — that en- 
grossed their attention. With strict discipline, in con- 
formity with these commands, they sought to order and 
sanctify their congregational life. But of Luther's doctrine 
of salvation, announced by him mainly on the testimony 
of St. Paul, or of the doctrine of justification by faith 
alone, they had as yet no knowledge. They taught of the 
righteousness to which Christians should attain, as did 
Augustine and the pious, practical theologians of the 
middle ages. Hence they were wanting also in freedom 



FURTHER RECONCILIATION. 487 

in their conception of moral life, and of those worldly 
duties and blessings to which, according to Luther, the 
Christian spirit rose by the power of faith. They 
shunned rather all worldly business in a manner that 
caused Luther to ascribe to them a certain monastic 
character. Their priests lived, like Catholics, in celibacy. 
Another peculiarity of their teaching was, that in striving 
after a more spiritual conception of life, and under the 
influence of the writings of the great Englishman Wicliffe, 
which were largely disseminated among them, they re- 
pudiated the Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation, nor 
would even allow such a Presence of Christ's Body as was 
insisted on by Luther. They maintained simply a sacra- 
mental, spiritual, effectual presence of Christ, and dis- 
tinguished from it a substantial Presence, which His Body, 
they declared, had in heaven alone. 

With these, too, as with the Utraquists, Luther became 
more closely acquainted soon after his return from the 
Wartburg. The evangelical preacher, Paul Speratus, who 
was then temporarily working in Moravia, wrote to him 
about these zealous friends of the gospel, among whom, 
however, he found much that was objectionable, especially 
their doctrine of the Sacrament. They themselves sent 
Luther messages, letters, and writings. Luther, who, in 
addition to the Catholic theory, had also to combat doubts 
as to the Eeal Presence of Christ's Body at the Sacra- 
ment, turned in 1523, in a treatise ' On the Adoration of 
the Sacrament, &c.,' to oppose the declarations of the 
Brethren on this subject, and then proceeded to draw their 
attention to other points on which he was unable to agree 
with them, in the mildest form and with warm acknowledg- 
ments of their good qualities, such as, in particular, their 
strict requirements of Christian moral conduct, which in 
his own circle he could not possibly expect to see as yet ful- 
filled. They and Lucas, their elder, however, took umbrage 



488 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

at his remarks ; Lucas published a reply, whereupon Luthel 
quietly left them to go their own way. 

While Butzer now was prosecuting with success his 
attempts at union, the Brethren renewed their overtures to 
Luther. They offered him fresh explanations about the 
doctrines in dispute, and these explanations he was content 
to treat as consistent with the truth which he himself 
main'ained, though they differed even from his own actual 
statements, not only in form but in substance. For example, 
they distinguished between the Presence of Christ's Body 
in the Sacrament and His existence in heaven, by describing 
only the latter as a Bodily existence. Practically, the 
theory of the Brethren, which, however, was by no means 
clearly defined, agreed most with that represented afterwards 
by Calvin But Luther saw in it nothing more that was 
essential, such as would necessitate further controversy, or 
deter him from friendly intercourse with these pious-minded 
people. At their desire he published two of their statements 
of belief in 1533 and 1538 with prefaces from his own pen. 
In these prefaces he dwelt particularly on the striking differ- 
ences, as regards Church usages and regulations, between 
their congregations and his own. But these differences, he 
said, ought in no way to prevent their fellowship ; a dif- 
ference of usages had always existed among Christian 
Churches, and with the difference of times and circum- 
stances, was unavoidable. Nor did he withhold a certain 
sanction and approbation of the dignity with which the 
Brethren continued to invest the state of celibacy, while 
refusing, however, to give that sanction the force of a law. 
Among the Brethren their gifted and energetic elder 
John Augusta laboured to promote an alliance with Luther 
and the German Beformation. He repeatedly appeared 
(and again in 1540) in person at Wittenberg. 

Thus on all sides, wherever the Evangelical word pre 
vailed, Luther saw the bonds of union being firmly tied. 



459 



CHAPTER IV. 

OTHER LABOURS AND TRANSACTIONS, 1535-39. — ARCHBISHOP 
ALBERT AND SCHONITZ. AGRICOLA. 

Amidst these important and general affairs of the Chinch, 
bringing daily fresh labours and fresh anxieties for Luther — 
labours, however, which, in spite of his bodily sufferings, he 
undertook with his old accustomed energy — his strength, as 
in previous years we have observed with reference to his 
preaching, now no longer sufficed as before for the regular 
work of his calling. In his official duties at the university 
the Elector himself, anxiously concerned as he was for its 
progress, would have spared him as much as possible For 
these he arranged, in 1536, an ample stipend. In his 
announcement of this step he solemnly declared : ' The 
merciful God has plenteously and graciously vouchsafed to 
let His holy, redeeming Word, through the teaching of the 
reverend and most learned, our beloved and good Martin 
Luther, doctor of Holy Scripture, be made known to all 
men in these latter days of the world with true Christian 
understanding, for their comfort and salvation, for which 
we give Him praise and thanks for ever ; and has made 
known also, in addition to other arts, the Latin, Greek, and 
Hebrew languages, through the conspicuous and rare ability 
and industry of the learned Philip Melancthon, for the 
furtherance of the right and Christian comprehension of 
Holy Scripture.' To each of these two men he now gave 
a hundred gulden as an addition to his salary as professor, 
which in Luther's case had hitherto amounted to two 
hundred gulden. At the same time he released Luther 



49o LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

from the obligation of lecturing, and, indeed, from all his 
other duties at the university. 

Luther began, however, this year a new and important 
course of lectures — the exposition of the Book of Genesis, 
which, according to his wont, he illustrated with a copious 
and valuable commentary on the chief points of Christian 
doctrine and Christian life. They progressed, however, but 
slowly and with many interruptions ; sometimes a whole 
year was occupied with only a few chapters. The work was 
not completed until 1545. They were the last lectures he 
delivered. 

In the office of preacher, which he continued to fill 
voluntarily and without emolument, he undertook again, 
after he had returned from Schmalkald, and had gained 
fresh strength and, at least, a temporary recovery from his 
recent illness, labours at once beyond and more arduous than 
his ordinary duties. He resumed, in short, the duties of 
Bugenhagen, who was given leave of absence till 1539 to 
visit Denmark, for the purpose of organising there, under the 
new king Christian III., the new Evangelical Church. He 
preached regularly on week-days, in addition to his Sunday 
sermons ; continuing his discourses, as Bugenhagen had 
done, though with many interruptions, on the Gospels of 
St. Matthew and St. John. The chancellor Briick wrote to 
the Elector from Wittenberg on August 27 : ' Doctor Martin 
preaches in the parish church thrice a week ; and such 
mightily good sermons are they, that it seems to me, as 
everyone is saying, there has never been such powerful 
preaching here before. He points out in particular the errors 
of the Popedom, and multitudes come to hear him. He 
closes his sermons with a prayer against the Pope, his 
Cardinals and Bishops, and for our Emperor, that God may 
give him victory and deliver him from the Popedom.' 

Among his literary labours he again took in hand in 1539 
his German translation of the Bible — the most important 
work, in its way, of all his life — and persevered with intense 






ARCHBISHOP ALBERT AND AG RICO LA. 491 

and unremitting industry, in order to revise it thoroughly 
for a new edition, which was published at the end of two 
years. For this work he assembled around him a circle of 
learned colleagues, whose assistance he succeeded in obtain- 
ing and whom he regularly consulted. These were Melanc- 
thon, Jonas, Bugenhagen, Cruciger, Matthew Aurogallus, 
professor of Hebrew, and afterwards the chaplain Borer, 
who attended to the corrections. From outside also some 
joined them, such as Ziegler, the Leipzig theologian, a man 
learned in Hebrew. Luther's younger friend Mathesius, 
who had been Luther's guest in 1540, relates of these meet- 
ings how ' Doctor Luther came to them with his old Bible in 
Latin and his new one in German, and besides these he 
had always the Hebrew text with him. Philip (Melancthon) 
brought with him the Greek text, Dr. Kreuziger (Cruciger) 
besides the Hebrew, the Chaldaic Bible (the translation 
or paraphrase in use among the ancient Jews) ; the pro- 
fessors had with them their Babbis (the Babbinical 
writings of the Old Testament). Each one had previously 
armed himself with a knowledge of the text, and compared 
the Greek and Latin with the Jewish version. The president 
then propounded a text, and let the opinions go round ; — 
speeches of wondrous truth and beauty are said to have 
been made at these sittings.' 

In other respects Luther's literary activity was chiefly 
devoted to the great questions remaining to be dealt with 
at a Council. In 1539, the year after his publication of the 
Schmalkaldic Articles, appeared a larger treatise from his 
pen ' On Councils and Churches,' one of the most exhaus- 
tive of his writings, and important to us as showing how 
firmly and confidently his idea of the Christian Church, as 
a community of the faithful, was maintained amidst all the 
practical difficulties which events prepared. He complains 
of the substitution of the blind, unmeaning word ' Church ' 
— and that even in the Catechism for the young— for the 
Greek word in the New Testament ' Ecclesia,' as the name 



492 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

of the community or assembly of Christian people. Much 
misery, he said, had crept in under that word Church, from 
its being understood as consisting of the Pope and the 
bishops, priests, and monks. The Christian Church was 
simply the mass of pious Christian people, who believed in 
Christ and were endowed with the Holy Spirit, Who daily 
sanctified them by the forgiveness of sins, and by absolving 
and purifying them therefrom. 

Of Luther's love for his German mother-language, and 
of the services he rendered it, so conspicuously shown by 
these his writings, and especially by his persevering indus- 
try in his translation of the Bible, we are further reminded 
by a request he made in a letter of March 1535, to his 
friend Wenzeslaus Link at Nuremberg. He suddenly in 
that letter breaks off from the Latin — which was still the 
customary language of correspondence between theologians 
— and continues in German, with the words, ' I will speak 
German, my dear Herr Werizel,' and then begs his friend 
to make his servant collect for him all the German pictures, 
rhymes, books, and ballads that had recently been pub- 
lished at Nuremberg, as he wished to familiarise himself 
more with the genuine language of the people. Luther 
himself made a goodly collection of German proverbs. His 
original manuscript which contained them was inherited 
by a German family, but unfortunately it was bought 
about twenty years ago in England. There was published 
also at Wittenberg, in 1537, a small anonymous book on 
German names, written (unquestionably by Luther) in 
Latin, and therefore intended for students. It contains, it 
is true, many strange mistakes, but it is, nevertheless, a 
proof of the interest he took in such studies, and is interest- 
ing as a maiden effort in this field of national learning. 

In the regular government and legal administration of 
his Saxon Church, Luther did not occupy any post of office. 
When in 1539 a Consistory was established at Wittenberg 
for the Electoral district, and afterwards, indeed, for the 



ARCHBISHOP ALBERT AND AGRICOLA. 493 

regulation of marriage and discipline, he did not become a 
member ; lie was certainly never called upon or qualified 
to take part in the exercise of such a jurisdiction. And 
yet this also was done with his concurrence, and in cases 
of difficulty he was resorted to for his advice. All Church 
questions of public interest continued, with this exception, to 
occupy his independent and influential discussion. And 
even the moral evils on the domain of civil, municipal and 
social life, to which Luther at the beginning of the Keforma- 
tion appeared desirous of extending his preaching of reform, 
so far, at least, as that preaching represented a general call 
and exhortation, but which he afterwards seemed to discard 
altogether as something foreign to his mission, never 
wholly faded from his purview, or ceased to enlist his 
active interest. He wrote again in 1539 against usury, 
much as he had written at an earlier period, remarking to 
his friends that his book would prick the consciences of 
petty usurers, but that the big swindlers would only laugh 
at him in their sleeves. And in publishing his Schmal- 
kaldic Articles he briefly refers again in his preface to the 
' countless matters of importance ' which a genuine Chris- 
tian Council would have to mend in the temporal condition 
of mankind — such as the disunion of princes and states, the 
usury and avarice, which had spread like a deluge and had 
become the law, and the sins of unchastity, gluttony, 
gambling, vanity in dress, disobedience on the part of 
subjects, servants, and workmen of all trades ; as also the 
removal of peasants, &c. Nor at the same time was he 
less prompt to interfere on behalf of individuals who were 
suffering from want and injustice, either by his humble in- 
tercession with their lords, or with the sharp sword of his 
denunciation. 

It was Luther's indignation and zeal on such an occa- 
sion that caused now his irremediable rupture with the 
Archbishop, Cardinal Albert, and induced him to attack 
that magnate as recklessly as he did ; for the Cardinal had 



494 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

hitherto been always disposed to treat him with a cer- 
tain respect ; and Luther, on his side, had refrained at 
least from any open exhibition of hostility. The imme- 
diate cause of this rupture was a judicial murder, perpe- 
trated against one John Schonitz (or Schanz) of Halle, on 
the river Saale. This man had for years had the charge, 
as the confidential servant of the Archbishop, of the public 
and even the private funds which his master required for 
his stately palaces, his luxury, and his sensual enjoyments, 
refined or coarse, legitimate or illegitimate ; and had ac- 
tually lent him large sums. The Estates of the Arch- 
bishopric complained of the demands made on them for 
money, and rightly suspected that the funds supplied were 
improperly and dishonestly misappropriated. Schonitz 
grew alarmed on account of the clandestine ' practices ' 
which he was carrying on for his master. The latter, how- 
ever, assured him of his protection. But when the Estates 
refused to grant any more subsidies until a proper account 
was laid before them, he basely sacrificed his servant in 
order to extricate himself from his embarrassment. For 
deceptions alleged to have been practised against himself, he 
had Schonitz arrested, and confined, in September 1534, in 
the Castle of Giebichenstein. In vain Schonitz demanded a 
public trial by impartial judges ; in vain did the Imperial 
Court of Justice give judgment in his favour. A second 
judgment of the court was answered by Albert's directing 
the prisoner, who was a citizen of Halle and sprung from 
an old local family, to be tried on June 21, 1535, at 
Giebichenstein, by a peasant tribunal hastily summoned 
from the surrounding villages, for the trial merely, as the 
rumour ran in Halle, of a horse-stealer. The unhappy 
prisoner was allowed no regular defence, and no counsel. 
An admission of guilt was extorted from him by the rack, 
and he was summarily sentenced to death. Time was only 
allowed him to say to the bystanders that he confessed 
himself a sinner in the sight of God. but that he had not 



ARCHBISHdP ALBERT AND AGRICOLA. 495 

deserved this fate. He was quickly strung up on the 
gallows, where his corpse remained hanging till the wind 
blew it down in February 1537. Albert took possession of 
his property. And this was done by the supreme prince 
of the Koman Church in Germany, who played the part of 
a modern Maecenas with regard to art and science. 

Whilst now the justices of the town of Halle were pro- 
testing against this treatment of their fellow-townsman to the 
Archbishop, who turned a deaf ear to their remonstrance, 
and Antony, the brother of the murdered man, exerted 
himself in vain to vindicate his honour and the rights of 
their family, Luther was drawn into the affair by the fact 
that one of his guests, Ludwig Eabe, was threatened with 
punishment by Albert, for expressions he let fall soon after 
the deed was committed. Luther thereupon wrote several 
times to Albert himself, and told him openly he was a 
murderer, and, for his squandering of Church property, 
deserved a gallows ten times higher than the Castle of 
Giebichenstein. He was restrained, however, from taking 
further steps by the Elector of Brandenburg and other of 
Albert's influential relatives, who appealed to John Frederick 
on his behalf, whilst Albert sought to make a cheap com- 
pensation to the family of the murdered man, or at least 
pretended to do so. 

When, however, a young Humanist poetaster at Witten- 
berg, named Lemnius — properly Lemchen — actually glori- 
fied the Archbishop in verse, or, as Luther put it, ' made a 
saint of the devil,' and at the same time vilified some men 
and women at Wittenberg, Luther read aloud from the 
pulpit, in 1538, a short indictment, couched in the plainest 
possible terms, against the shameless libeller, as also against 
the Archbishop whom he glorified ; and this indictment 
soon appeared in print. And now he no longer refrained 
from taking up the cause of Schonitz in a pamphlet of 
some length. When the Duke of Prussia endeavoured once 
more in a friendly way to dissuade him from his purpose, 



496 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

for the honour of the house of Brandenburg, he replied. 
' Wicked sons have sprung from the noble race of David, 
and princes ought not to disgrace themselves by unprincely 
vices.' In the pamphlet to his opening he declared that 
a stone was lying upon his heart which was called ' De- 
liver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are 
ready to be slain' (Prov. xxiv. 11). He denounced the 
contempt and denial of justice of which the Archbishop 
was guilty, and at the same time boldly exposed the real 
objects of those private expenses which the Archbishop, 
together with his servant, had incurred, and of which the 
latter was naturally unable to give an account — least of 
all, those that ministered to his carnal appetites, such as 
his establishment at Morizburg in Halle. He himself, 
says Luther, does not judge the Cardinal ; he is simply 
the bearer of the sentence pronounced by the great Judge 
in heaven. To those who might perhaps have taken 
exception to his words he says, ' I sit here at Wittenberg, 
and ask my most gracious lord the Elector for no further 
favour or protection than what is given to all alike/ 
Albert found it more prudent to keep silent. 

But what disturbed and grieved Luther more than 
anything else during this, the closing chapter of his life, 
was the bitter experience he had yet to make in his own 
religious community, nay, amidst his most intimate com- 
panions and friends. 

The way of life — in other words, the way of saving 
faith— was now rediscovered and clearly brought to light; 
and, as Luther said, a truly moral life should be the con- 
sequence. And great pains were taken to stanrp this new 
truth clearly and distinctly on doctrine, and to guard 
against new errors and perversions. Differences, however, 
now arose among those who had hitherto worked so loyally 
together for the establishment of the faith— a beginning 
of those doctrinal disputes which after Luther's death be- 
came so disastrous to his Church. Again and again Luther 






ARCHBISHOP ALBERT AND AGRICOLA. 



497 



bitterly complained of the moral wrongs and scandals 
which proved that the faith, however widely its confession 
had spread through Germany, was far from living in its 
purity and strength in the hearts of men, and bearing the 
expected fruit. Only his own conviction, his own faith was 
never shaken by this result. It must needs be, as Christ 
Himself had said, that offences must come ; and, in the 
words of St. Paul (1 Cor. xi. 19), ' there must be also 
heresies,' and false teachers and deceivers must arise. 

We have seen above how cordially Luther welcomed 
Agricola back at Wittenberg after throwing up his appoint- 
ment at Eisleben. He obtained 
for him from the Elector 
in 1537 an ample salary, to 
enable him to fill the long- 
coveted office of teacher at the 
university, and be a preacher 
as well. It soon became 
known that Agricola per- 
sisted in maintaining that 
doctrine of repentance in 
defence of which he had at- 
tacked Melancthon at the first 
visitation of churches in the 
Saxon Electorate. He had 
been accused of this at Eis- 
leben, and Count Albert of Mansfeld, whose service he 
had quitted with rudeness and discontent, denounced 
him as a restless and dangerous fellow. And now at Wit- 
tenberg also Agricola had some sermons printed, and some 
theses circulated, embodying a statement of his peculiar 
doctrine. Luther considered it his duty to refute these, 
and he did so from the pulpit, but without naming their 
author. 

The proclamation of God's law, so Agricola now taught, 
was n<* necessary part of Christianity, as such, nor of the 

K K 




Fig. 44. — Agricola. (From a mi- 
niature portrait by Cranach, in 
the University Album atWitten. 
berg, 1531.) 



498 LUTHER AXD THE PROTESTAXTS. 

way of salvation prepared and revealed by Christ. The 
Gospel of the Son of God, our Saviour, this alone should 
be proclaimed, and operate hi touching the hearts of men 
and exposing the true character of their sins as sin- 
fulness against the Son of God. In this way he sought 
to give full effect to the fundamental evangelical doctrine, 
that the grace of God alone had power to save through the 
joyful message of Christ. The personal vanity, however, 
which was the chief weakness of this gifted, intellectual, and 
fairly eloquent man, and which was now increased by the 
dissatisfaction it had caused at Eisleben, displayed itself 
further in the assertion of his eccentricities of dogma. 
Moreover, he was far from clear in his first principles, and 
while maintaining his tenets he was unwilling to stake too 
much on his own account, and yet refused actually to 
abandon them. 

He came at first to an understanding with Luther by 
offering an explanation which the latter deemed satisfactory, 
but he then proceeded to revert to his peculiar tenets in a 
new publication. Luther now launched a sharp reply 
against these antinomian theses, as well as against others, 
which went much further, and whose origin is unknown. 
He found wanting in Agricola that earnest moral apprecia- 
tion of the law, and of the moral demands made of us by 
God, whereby the heart of the sinner, as he himself had 
experienced, must first be bruised and broken, and thus 
opened to receive the word of grace, before that word cau 
truly renew, revive, and sanctify it. But together with Agri- 
cola's tenets he then placed the others, betraying an equally 
frivolous estimate of the real nature of those demands 
and of the duties they entailed, as evidence of one tendency 
and one character, since Agricola, indeed, taught like them, 
that the good willed by God in His Commandments was ful- 
filled in Christians by the simple fact of then* belief in Christ, 
and as the fruit of His word of grace. Thus it came about 
that this tendency which Luther found represented in 
Agricola, stood out before him in all its compass and 



ARCHBISHOP ALBERT AND AGRICOLA. 499 

with its extremest and most alarming consequences, and 
called forth the boldest exercise of his zeal. It grieved him 
sorely, nevertheless, to have to enter into this dispute with 
his old friend. ' God knows,' he said, ' what trials this 
business has prepared for me ; I shall have died of sheer 
anxiety before I have brought my theses against him 
(Agricola) to the light.' 

At the instance, however, of the Elector, who valued 
Agricola, another reconciliation was brought about. Agricola 
humbled himself ; he even authorised his great opponent 
to draw up a retractation in his name, and Luther did this 
in a manner very damaging to Agricola, in a letter to his 
former colleague and opponent at Eisleben, Caspar Giittel. 
Agricola thereupon received a place in the newly- formed 
consistory. But even now he could not refrain from fresh 
utterances which betrayed his old opinions. Luther's 
confidence in him was thus destroyed for ever : he spoke 
with indignation, pain, and scorn of ' Grikel (Agricola), the 
false man.' The latter at length complained to the Elector 
against Luther for having unjustly aspersed him. The 
Elector testified to him his displeasure ; Luther gave a sharp 
answer to the charge, and his prince made further inquiries 
into the matter of complaint. Agricola finally snatched at 
a means of escape offered by his summons to Berlin, 
whither he had been called as a preacher of distinction by 
the Elector Joachim II., who was a convert to the Reforma- 
tion. In August 1540 he left Wittenberg. He sent thither 
from Berlin another and fully satisfactory retractation in 
order to retain his official appointment. But Luther's 
friendship with him was broken for ever. 

In another quarter also Melancthon had been charged 
with deviating in certain statements from the path of right 
doctrine. 

We know already how his anxiety about the dangers 
caused by the separation from the great Catholic Church 
seemed to tempt him to indulge in questionable concessions, 

KK 2 



500 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTAXTS. 

and how it was Luther himself, with a disposition so dif- 
ferent to Melancthon's, who nevertheless held firmly to 
his trust in his friend and fellow-labourer, particularly dur- 
ing the Diet of Augsburg. And, indeed, subsequent events 
brought this tendency to concession more fully into notice. 
Certain peculiarities now asserted themselves in Melanc- 
thon's independent opinions, with regard both to theology 
and practical life, which distinguished his mode of teaching 
from that of Luther. He who, again and again, in the 
Augsburg Confession and the Apology, as also in the system 
of evangelical theology which in his ' Loci Communes ' he 
was the first to elaborate, had expounded with full and 
active conviction the fundamental evangelical truth of a 
justifying and saving Faith, was anxious also — more so, 
even, than many strict confessors of that doctrine — to have 
the whole field of moral improvement and the fruits of 
morality which were necessary to preserve that faith, esti- 
mated at their proper value. And further, with respect to 
God's will and the operation of His grace, whereby alone the 
sinner could obtain inward conversion and faith, he wished 
to make this depend entirely on man's own will and choice, 
so that the blame might not appear to lie with God if the 
call to salvation remained fruitless, and a temptation 
thereby be offered to many to indulge in carelessness or 
despondency. In addition to this, he differed unmistak- 
ably from Luther in his doctrine of the Sacrament. For, 
though it was he who at Augsburg in 1530 had flatly re- 
jected the Zwinglians, still his historical researches im- 
pressed him with the belief, that, in reality, as indeed the 
Zwinglians maintained, not Augustine himself, among 
the ancients, had taught the Eeal Bodily Presence after 
the manner of Luther, or even of Eoman Catholicism ; and 
his own theological opinion induced him at least to satisfy 
himself with more or less obscure propositions about the 
communion of the Saviour Who died for us with the guests 
at His table, without any fixed or clear declarations about 






ARCHBISHOP ALBERT AND AGRICOLA. $01 

the substantiality of the Body. This appears, for instance, 
in his ' Loci Communes,' although in the formula of the 
Wittenberg Concord of 1536 he went farther, together with 
Luther. 

On the first point above-mentioned, a priest named 
Cordatus, a strict adherent of Luther, had raised a protest 
against him in 1536. But the opponent whom Melancthon 
chiefly feared in this respect was the theologian Amsdorf, 
who was not only an old familiar friend of Luther, but the 
especial guardian, both then and still more after Luther's 
death, of Lutheran orthodoxy. But Luther himself was 
anxious to avoid, even in this matter, any rupture or discord 
with Melancthon. He took great pains to reconcile the 
difference, and knew also how to keep silence, though with- 
out deviating from his own strict standpoint, or being able to 
overlook the peculiarity of his friend's teaching, conspicu- 
ously apparent as it was in the new edition of his book. 

We are reminded by this, moreover, how Luther, during 
his illness at Schmalkald in 1537, made no secret of his 
fear of a division breaking out at Wittenberg after his 
death. 



5Q2 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 



CHAPTEK V. 

LUTHER AND THE PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES 
OF PROTESTANTISM. 1538-1541. 

In the great affairs of the Church, amid the threats of his 
enemies and in all his dealings with them, Luther continued 
from day to day to trust quietly in God, as the Guider 
of events, Who suffers none to forestall His designs, and 
puts to shame and rebuke the inventions of man. His 
hope of external peace had hitherto been fulfilled be} r ond 
all expectation. And it had been permitted him to see the 
Eeformation gain strength and make further progress in 
the German Empire. Indeed, it seemed possible that a 
union might be effected with those Catholics who had been 
impressed with the evangelical doctrine of salvation. These 
were results accomplished by the inward power of God's 
Word, as hitherto preached to the people, under a Divine 
and marvellously favourable dispensation of outer relations 
and events — fruits as unexpected as they were gratifying 
to Luther. Great plans or projects of his own, however, 
were still far from his thoughts ; nor even did the details 
of this historical development demand such activity on his 
part as he had shown in the earlier years of the movement. 
And yet there was no lack of discord, difficulty, and trouble 
within the pale of the new Church and amongst its members ; 
prospects of further, and possibly much more serious dan- 
gers to be encountered ; thoughts of sadness and disquie- 
tude to vex the soul of the Eeformer, now aged, suffering, 
and weary. The goal of his hopes had ever been, and still 
remained, not indeed a victory to be gradually achieved 



PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 503 

for his cause, perhaps even in his own lifetime, by the 
course of ecclesiastical and political changes and events, 
but the end which the Lord Himself, according to His 
promises, would make of the whole wicked world, and the 
Hereafter whither he was ever waiting to be summoned. 

Since the Schmalkaldic allies had rejected the Emperor 
with his invitation to a Council, the Komish zealots might 
well hope that Charles at length would prepare to use 
force against them. He was not yet able to bring his 
quarrel with King Francis to a final termination ; but, 
nevertheless, he concluded a truce with him in 1538 for ten 
years, while at the same time his vice-chancellor Held 
contrived to effect a union of Eoman Catholic princes in 
Germany in opposition to the Schmalkaldic League. This 
union was joined, in addition to Austria, Bavaria, and 
George of Saxony, by Duke Henry of Brunswick, the bitter 
enemy of the Landgrave Philip. Already in the spring of 
that year people at Wittenberg talked of operations on a 
large scale ostensibly directed against the Turks, but in 
reality against the Protestants. Or at least it was feared 
that the imperial army, in the event of its defeating the 
Turks, might, as Luther expressed it, turn their spears 
against the Evangelical party. In this respect Luther had 
no fears ; he did not believe in a victory over the Turks, 
and, even in that case, his opinion was that the imperial 
troops would no more submit to be made the instruments of 
such a policy than they had done some years before, after their 
victory at Vienna. Most earnestly he exhorted the Elector, 
for his part at least, to do his duty again in the war against 
the Turks, for the sake of his Fatherland and the poor op- 
pressed people. On the other hand, the right of the Protestant 
States to resist the Emperor, if it came to a war of religion, 
was one which he now asserted without scruple or hesita- 
tion. The Emperor, he said, in such a war would not be 
Emperor at all, but merely a soldier of the Pope. He 
appealed to the fact that once among the people of Israel 



504 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

pious and godly men had risen up against their sovereign ; 
and the German princes had additional rights over their 
Emperor, by virtue of their constitution. Finally, he rea- 
soned from the law of nature itself, that a father was 
bound to protect his wife and children from open murder ; 
and he likened the Emperor, who usurped a power noto- 
riously illegal, to a murderer. For the rest, he declared, in a 
publication exhorting the Evangelical clergy to pray for 
peace, that as to whether the Papists chose to carry out 
their designs or not he was perfectly indifferent, in case 
God did not will to work a miracle. His only fear was lest 
a war might arise, if they did so, which would never end, 
and would be the total ruin of Germany. 

But the Emperor was less zealous and more cautious 
than his vice-chancellor. He sent another representative 
to Germany, with instructions to prevent an outbreak of 
hostilities. This envoy, in the course of some negotiations 
conducted at Frankfort in April 1539, agreed to an under- 
standing by which the ecclesiastical law-suits hitherto 
instituted in the Imperial Chamber against the Protestants 
were suspended, and a number of chosen theologians of 
piety and laymen were to ' arrange a praiseworthy union of 
Christians' at an assembly of the German Estates. 

On April 17, in the midst of these transactions, Duke 
George of Saxony died after a short illness. His country 
passed to his brother Henry, who in his own smaller 
territory of Freiburg had for some years, much to the grief 
of George, established the Evangelical form of worship, and 
given shelter to the heretics banished by his brother. The 
latter had left no male issue to succeed him. He had lost 
two sons in boyhood ; and his son John, who held the same 
opinions as himself, had died two years ago, when quite a 
young man, without leaving any children. His last re- 
maining son Frederick was of weak intellect, but had 
nevertheless been married after his brother's death, and 
died a few weeks later. He was soon followed by his 



PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 505 

unhappy father and sovereign. Luther said of him that 
he had gone to everlasting fire, though he would have 
wished him life and conversion. To us his end appears 
the more tragic because we cannot but acknowledge the 
honest zeal with which, from his own point of view, he 
endeavoured to serve God, and would willingly even have 
effected a reform in the Church ; whilst, in spite of all 
his severity against heretics, he never suffered himself 
to be hurried into deeds of coarse violence and cruelty. 
There are extant prayers and religious discourses, composed 
and written down by himself. He read the Bible, and 
expressed a wish, when Luther's translation appeared, that 
' the monk would put the whole Bible into German, and 
then go about his business.' 

Thus the old and constantly revived quarrel between 
Luther and the Duke came at length to an end. The 
Eeformation was immediately introduced throughout the 
duchy by the appointment of Evangelical clergy, by changes 
in public worship, and by a visitation of churches after the 
example of the one in Electoral Saxony. When Henry 
was solemnly acknowledged sovereign at Leipzig, he invited 
Luther and Jonas to be present. On the afternoon of 
Whitsunday, May 24, 1539, Luther preached a sermon in 
the court chapel of that Castle of Pleissenburg, where he 
had once disputed before George with Eck, and on the 
following afternoon he preached in one of the churches of 
the town, not venturing to do so in the morning on account 
of his weak state of health. He now proclaimed aloud, in 
his sermon on the Gospel for Whitsunday, that the Church 
of Christ was not there, where men were madly crying 
' Church ! Church ! ' without the Word of God, nor was it 
with the Pope, the cardinals, and the bishops ; but there, 
and there only, where Christ was loved and His Word was 
kept, and where accordingly He dwelt in the souls of men. 
He refrained from any special reference to the state of 
things hitherto existing at Leipzig and in the duchy, or to 



506 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

the change brought about by God. But we call to mind 
the words he had spoken in 1532, ' Who knows what God 
will do before ten years are over ? ' Very soon, indeed, the 
magnates of the Saxon court and the nobility, though 
accepting the reformed faith of their new sovereign, gave 
occasion to Luther for bitter complaints of then rapacity, 
their indifference to religion, and then improper and 
tyrannical usurpations on the territory of the Church. 

In addition to the Saxon duchy, the Electorate of 
Brandenburg was also about to go over to Protestantism. 
The Elector Joachim I. adhered so strictly to the ancient 
Church, that his wife Elizabeth, who was evangelically in- 
clined, had fled to Saxony, where she became an intimate 
friend of Luther's household. But on his death in 1535, 
his younger son John, together with his territory, the ' Neu- 
rnark,' joined at once the Schmalkaldic allies. And now, 
after longer consideration, his elder brother also, Joachim II. 
— a man of quieter disposition and more attached to ancient 
ways — took the decisive step, after an agreement with his 
Estates and the territorial bishop, Jagow. On November 1, 
1539, he received from the latter publicly the Sacrament in 
both kinds. 

Under these circumstances the Emperor resolved to give 
effect to the essential part of the Frankfort agreement. 
He summoned a meeting at Spire ' for the purpose of so 
arranging matters that the wearisome dissension in religion 
might be reconciled in a Christian manner.' In consequence 
of a pestilence which appeared at Spire, the assembly was 
removed to Hagenau. Here it was actually held in June 
1540. 

Meanwhile, the most vigorous champion of Protestantism, 
the Landgrave Philip, took a step which was calculated to 
damage the position of the Evangelical Church and to 
embarrass its adherents more than anything which their 
enemies could possibly attempt. Philip, in his youth (1523) 
had taken to wife a daughter of Duke George of Saxony, 



PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 507 

but soon repented of his ill-considered resolve, on the 
ground that she was of an unamiable disposition and was 
afflicted with bodily infirmities, and accordingly proceeded 
to look elsewhere for a mistress, after the fashion only too 
common at that time with emperors and princes, but 
scarcely commented upon in their case. The earnest 
remonstrances made to him on religious grounds against 
this step had the effect of causing him certain prickings 
of conscience ; he had not ventured on that account, as he 
now complained, to present himself at the Lord's table, 
with one single exception, since the Peasants' War. But 
his conscience was not strong enough to make him give up 
his evil ways. At last the Bible, which he read indus- 
triously, seemed to him to provide a means of outlet from his 
difficulty, He sheltered himself, as the Anabaptist fanatics 
had done before him, behind the Old Testament precedent 
of Abraham and other godly men, to whom it had been per- 
mitted to have more than one wife, and pleaded, moreover, 
that the New Testament contained no prohibition of poly- 
gamy. With all the energy and stubbornness of his nature, 
he fastened on these notions and clung to them, when, at the 
house of his sister, the Duchess Elizabeth, at Kochlitz, he 
chanced to meet and fall in love with a lady named Margaret 
von der Saal. She refused to be his except by marriage. Her 
mother even demanded of him that Luther, Butzer, and 
Melancthon, or at least two of them, together with an 
envoy of the Elector and the Duke of Saxony, should be 
present as witnesses at the marriage. Philip himself found 
the consent of these divines and of his most distinguished 
ally, John Frederick, indispensable. He succeeded first of 
all in gaining over the versatile Butzer, and sent him in 
December 1539, on this errand, to Wittenberg. 

He appealed to the strait that he was in, no longer 
able with a good conscience to go to war or to punish 
crime, and also to the testimony of Scripture, adding, 
very truly, that the Emperor and the world were 



508 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

quite willing to permit both him and anyone else to live in 
open immorality. Thus, he said, they were forbidding 
what God allowed, and winking at what He prohibited. 
In other respects, indeed, a double marriage was not a thing 
unheard of even by the Christendom of those days. It 
was said, for instance, of the Christian Emperor of Koine, 
Valentinian II., to whose case Philip himself appealed, that 
he had been permitted to contract a marriage of that kind. 
To the Pope was ascribed the power to grant the necessary 
dispensation. 

On December 10 Butzer brought back to the Landgrave 
from Wittenberg an opinion of Luther and Melancthon. 
They told him in decided terms that it was in accordance 
with creation itself, and recognised as such by Jesus, ' that 
a man was not to have more than one wife ; ' and they, the 
preachers of God's Word, were commanded to regulate 
marriage and all human things ' in accordance with their 
original and Divine institution, and to adhere thereto as 
closely as possible, while at the same time avoiding to their 
utmost all cause of pain or annoyance.' They urgently 
exhorted him not to regard incontinence, as did the world, 
in the light of a trifling offence, and represented to him 
plainly that if he refused to resist his evil inclinations, he 
would not mend matters by taking a second wife. But 
with all this exhortation and warning, they confessed them- 
selves bound to admit that ' what was allowed in respect of 
marriage by the law of Moses was not actually forbidden in 
the gospel ; ' thereby maintaining, in point of fact, that an 
original ordinance in the Church must be adhered to as the 
rule, but nevertheless admitting the possibility of a dispensa- 
tion under very strong and exceptional circumstances. They 
did not say that such a dispensation was applicable to the 
case of Philip ; they only wished him earnestly to reconsider 
the matter with his own conscience. In the event, however, 
of his keeping to his resolve, they would not refuse him the 
benefit of a dispensation, and only required that the matter 



PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 509 

should be kept private, on account of the scandal and 
possible abuse it would occasion if generally known. 

Luther himself abandoned afterwards the conclusions 
he drew from the Old Testament in this respect, and, as a 
consequence, rejected the admissibility of a double mar- 
riage for Christians. Friends of the evangelical and 
Lutheran belief can only lament the decision he pro- 
nounced in this matter. With that belief itself it has 
nothing whatever to do. Instead of drawing his conclu- 
sions from the moral aspect of marriage, as amply attested 
by the spirit of the New Testament, though not indeed 
exactly expressed, Luther on this occasion clung to the 
letter, and failed, of course, to find any written declaration 
on the point. At the same time he mistook, in common 
with all the theologians of his time, the difference, in point of 
matured morality and knowledge, between the New Cove- 
nant and the standpoint of the Old, which was that also 
of his best adherents. 

The simple Christian common sense of the Elector 
John Frederick, and his practical view of the position, 
preserved him this time from the error into which the 
theologians had fallen. He lamented that they should 
have given an answer, and would have nothing to do with 
the business. 

Philip, however, rejoiced at the decision, and obtained, 
moreover, his wife's consent to take a second one. 

In the following March the Protestants held another 
conference at Schmalkald, with a view of coming to an 
agreement as to their conduct in the attempts at unity in 
the Church. The Elector summoned Melancthon thither, 
but excused Luther, at his own request. Philip then in- 
vited the former, under some pretext or other, to the neigh- 
bouring Castle of Eothenburg on the Fulda. Arrived there, 
he was obliged to be a witness with Butzer, on March 4, 
1540, to the marriage of the Landgrave with Margaret. 
Philip thanked Luther some weeks after for the ' remedy ' 



5 to LUTHER AXD THE PROTESTANTS. 

allowed him, without which he should have become ' quite 
desperate.' He had kept the name of his second wife a 
secret from the Wittenbergers ; he now told Luther that 
she was a virtuous maiden, a relative of Luther's own 
wife, and that he rejoiced to have honourably become his 
kinsman. 

Very soon, however, the news of this unheard of event 
got wind. The Evangelicals were not less scandalised 
than their enemies, who in other respects were glad to 
see the mischief. The first to demand an explanation was 
the Ducal Court of Saxony, the Duke being so nearly 
related to Philip's first wife, and on the eve of a quarrel 
with Philip about a claim of inheritance. The Land- 
grave's whole position was in jeopardy; for bigamy, by 
the law of the Empire, was a serious offence. Luther 
heard now with indignation that the ' necessity ' to which 
Philip had thought himself justified in yielding had been 
exaggerated. The latter, on the other hand, finding con- 
cealment no longer possible, wished to announce his mar- 
riage publicly, and defend it. He went so far as to 
imagine that even if the allies should renounce him he 
might still procure the favour and consideration of the 
Emperor. Unpleasant and very painful discussions arose 
between him, John Frederick, and Duke Henry of 
Saxony. 

Meanwhile, the day was now approaching for the con- 
ference at Hagenau. Melancthon was sent there too by 
the Elector. But on reaching Weimar on June 13, where 
the prince was then staying, he suddenly fell ill, and it 
seemed as if his end was close at hand. He was oppressed 
with trouble and anxiety about the wrongdoing of the 
Landgrave. The Elector himself wrote reproachfully to 
Philip, saying that ' Philip Melancthon was disturbed with 
miserable thoughts about him,' and he now lay between 
life and death. Luther was sent for by the Elector from 
Wittenberg. He found the sick man tying in a state of uncon- 



PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 511 

sciousness and seemingly quite dead to the world. Shocked 
at the sight, he exclaimed, ' God help us ! how has Satan 
marred this vessel of Thy grace ! ' Then the faithful, 
manly friend fell to praying God for his precious com- 
panion, casting, as he said, all his heart's request before 
Him, and reminding Him of all the promises contained in 
His own Word. He exhorted and bade Melancthon to be 
of good courage, for that God willed not the death of a 
sinner, and he would yet live to serve Him. He assured 
him he would rather now depart himself. On Melancthon' s 
gradually showing more signs of life, he had some food 
prepared for him, and on his refusing it said, ' You really 
must eat, or I will excommunicate you.' By degrees the 
patient revived in body and soul. Luther was able to 
inform another friend, ' We found him dead, and by an 
evident miracle he lives.' 

Luther, after this, was taken to Eisenach by his prince, 
to advise him on the news which he expected to receive 
there from Hagenau. At Eisenach he and the chancellor 
Briick had an earnest consultation with envoys from Hesse. 
Against these, both Luther and Briick insisted that the pro- 
ceedings which had taken place between Philip and the 
theologians in respect to his marriage should be kept as 
secret as a confession, and that Philip must be content to 
have his second marriage regarded, in the eyes of the world 
and according to the law, as concubinage. He must make 
up his mind, therefore, to parry, as best he could, the ques- 
tions which were being noised abroad about him, with 
vague statements or equivocations. He would then incur 
no further personal danger. But any attempt to brazen it 
out would inevitably land him in confusion and embarrass- 
ment, and only increase and continue the damage done to 
the Evangelical cause by this affair. 

The Diet at Hagenau made no further demand on 
Luther's activity. It was there resolved to take in hand again, 
at another meeting to be held at Worms late in the autumn, 



512 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

and after further preparation, the religious and ecclesiastical 
questions at issue. Peaceably- disposed and competent men 
were to be appointed on both sides for this purpose. Thus 
Luther was now at liberty to leave Eisenach towards the 
end of July, and return home, dissatisfied, as he wrote to 
his wife, with the Diet at Hagenau, where labour and 
expense had been wasted, but happy in the thought that 
Melancthon had been restored from death to life. 

At Worms the proceedings, in which Melancthon and 
Eck took a prominent part, were further adjourned to a Diet 
which the Emperor purposed to hold in person at Eatisbon 
early in 1541. Here, on April 27, a debate was opened on 
religion. 

Luther entertained very slender expectations from all 
these conferences, considering the long-ascertained opinions 
of his opponents. He pointed to the innocent blood which 
had long stained the hands of the Emperor Charles and 
King Ferdinand. Still, during the Diet at Worms, the 
thought arose in his mind that, if only the Emperor were 
rightly disposed, a German Council might actually result 
from that assembly. He saw his enemies busy with 
their secret schemes of mischief, and feared lest many of his 
comrades in the faith, such as the Landgrave Philip, might 
treat too lightly the matter, which was no mere comedy 
among men, but a tragedy in which God and Satan were the 
actors. He rejoiced again, however, that the falsehood and 
cunning of his enemies must be brought to nought by their 
own folly, and that God Himself would consummate the great 
catastrophe of the drama. And in regard to the fear we 
have just mentioned, he declared that he, at any rate, 
would not suffer himself to be dragged into anything 
against his own conviction. ' Eather,' said he, ' would I 
take the matter again on my own shoulders, and stand 
alone, as at the beginning. We know that it is the cause 
of God, and He will carry it through to the end ; whoever 
will not go with it, must remain behind.' 






PROGRESS' AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 513 

Between the Diets of Worms and Eatisbon he entered 
in 1541, with all his old severity, and with a violence 
even beyond his wont, into a bitter correspondence which 
had just then begun between Duke Henry of Brunswick- 
Wolfenbiittel, a zealous Catholic, and morally of ill re- 
pute with friend and foe, on the one side, and John 
Frederick and the Landgrave Philip, the heads of the 
Schmalkaldic League, on the other. He published against 
Duke Henry a pamphlet ' Against Hans Worst.' The Duke 
had taunted him with having allowed himself to call his 
own sovereign Hans Wurst. Luther assured him, in 
reply, that he had never given this name to a single man, 
whether friend or foe ; but now applied it to the Duke, be- 
cause he found it meant a stupid blockhead who wished 
to be thought clever and all the time spoke and acted like 
a simpleton. But he was not content with calling him a 
blockhead ; he represented him as a profligate man, who, 
while libelling the princes and pretending to be the cham- 
pion of God's ordinances, himself practised open adultery, 
committed acts of violence and insolent tyranny, and incited 
men to incendiarism in his opponents' territories. He 
would let the Duke scream himself hoarse or dead with his 
calumnies against John Frederick and the Evangelicals, 
and simply answer him by saying, ' Devil, thou liest ! 
Hans Worst, how thou liest ! 0, Henry Wolfenbiittel, what 
a shameless liar thou art ! Thou spittest forth much, and 
namest nothing ; thou libellest, and provest nothing.' At 
the same time this pamphlet of Luther was a literary vin- 
dication of the Beformation and Protestantism ; here, said 
he, and not in the popedom, was the true, ancient, and original 
Christian Church. Luther himself, on reading over his 
pamphlet after it was printed, thought its tone against 
Henry was too mild ; a headache, he said, must have sup- 
pressed his indignation. 

Just at this time he had to encounter a fresh and 
violent attack of illness. He described it, in a letter to 

L L 



514 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

Melancthon, who was then at Eatisbon, as a ' cold in the 
head ; ' it was accompanied not only with alarming giddi- 
ness, from which he was now a frequent sufferer, but also 
with deafness and intolerable pains, forcing tears from his 
eyes, something unusual with him, and making him call 
on God to put an end to his pain or to his life. A copious 
discharge of matter from his ear, which occurred in Passion 
Week, gave him relief ; but for a long while he continued 
very weak and suffering, To his prince, who sent his 
private physician to attend him, ho wrote on April 25, 
thanking him, and adding, ' I should have been well con- 
tent if the dear Lord Jesus had taken me in His mercy 
. from hence, as I am now of little more use on earth.' He 
attributed his recovery to the intercessions which Bugen- 
hagen had made for him in the Church. 

Whilst he was still feeling his head thus full of pain 
and unfit for work, he was called upon to give his opinion 
on the preparations for the religious conference at Eatisbon, 
and afterwards upon its results. 

Bright prospects seemed now to be opening for the victory 
of the Gospel. Men of understanding and really desirous of 
peace had for once been commissioned, by the Catholics 
as well as by the Protestants, to conduct the debate. 
The chief actors were no longer an Eck, though he, too, 
was one of the collocutors, but the pious, gentle, and 
refined theologian Julius von Pnug, and the electoral 
counsellor of Cologne, Gropper, who vied with him in an 
earnest desire for reform and unity. Contarini also was 
there, as the Papal legate — a man influenced by purely 
religious motives, and a convert to the deeper Evangelical 
doctrine of salvation. Melancthon and Butzer were also 
there. The questions of most importance from the Evan- 
gelical point of view were first dealt with — namely, those 
which related, not to the external system and authority 
of the Church, but to man's need of, and the way to obtain, 
salvation, to sin, grace, and justification. And it was 



PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 515 

now unanimously confessed that the faithful soul is sustained 
solely by the righteousness given by Christ ; and for His 
sake alone, and not for any worthiness or works of its own, 
is justified and accepted by God. 

Never before, and never since, have Protestant and 
Catholic theologians approached each other so nearly, nay, 
been so unanimous, on these fundamental doctrines, as on 
that memorable day. And the Catholics, in this, distinctly 
left the ground of mediaeval scholasticism, and went over 
to that of the Evangelicals. How distinctly this was done 
will be apparent to any one who compares the propositions 
accepted at the Conference of Eatisbon with the Catholic 
reply to the Augsburg Confession of 1530. 

Nevertheless, we do not find that Luther felt particularly 
elated by the news from Eatisbon. The formula which 
embodied their agreement seemed to him a 'roundabout 
and patched affair.' In connection with faith, as the 
only means of justification, too much, he thought, was said 
of the works which must spring from it; in connection 
with the justification given to the faithful through Christ, 
too much was said of the righteousness which each Christian 
must strive to attain. He, too, had always taught and 
demanded both works and righteousness. But the present 
arrangement of clauses seemed to him calculated to lessen 
and obscure again the primary importance of Christ and 
of Faith, as the sole means of salvation. And we see 
what objection was uppermost in his mind, in his allusion 
to Eck, who also was obliged to subscribe the formula. 
Eck, said Luther, would never confess to having once 
taught differently to now, and would know well enough 
how to adopt the new tenets to his old way of thinking. 
They were putting a patch of new cloth upon an old gar- 
ment, and the rent would be made worse. (Matt. ix. 16.) 

Luther was spared, however, a decision as to the ac- 
ceptance or non-acceptance of an agreement. For among 
the Catholic Estates of the Empire he. found, so far as he 

L L 2 



5 i6 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

had followed the debate of the Diet, too strong an oppo- 
sition to hope for real union. Moreover, the collocutors 
themselves were uname to agree when they came to further 
questions, as, for example, the Mass and Transubstantiation ; 
they still shipwrecked, therefore, on those points which 
were of the most vital importance for the external glorifica- 
tion of the priesthood and the Church, and the surrender 
of which would have meant the sacrifice of a dogma already 
ratified by a Conciliar decree. 

On June 11 an embassy from Eatisbon appeared before 
Luther in the name of those Protestant states which were 
most zealous for unity. Prince John of Anhalt was at 
their head. Luther was requested to declare his concur- 
rence with what had been done, and assist them in giving 
permanent effect to the articles agreed to at the Conference, 
and arranging some peaceful and tolerant compromise with 
regard to those points on which agreement had been im- 
possible. Luther was quite prepared to acquiesce in such 
toleration, provided only the Emperor would permit the 
preaching of the articles referring to the doctrine of salva- 
tion, leaving it open to the Protestants to continue then- 
warfare of the Word on the points still remaining in dispute. 
The Emperor, however, would only sanction those articles 
on the understanding that a Council should finally decide 
upon them, and that, in the meantime, all controversial 
writings on matters of religion should cease. By the Catholic 
Estates at the Diet they were strenuously opposed. Luther's 
own opinion remained substantially the same as before — 
namely, that any trust or hopes were vain, unless their 
enemies gave God the honour due to Him, and openly 
confessed that they had changed their teaching. The 
Emperor must see and acknowledge that within the last 
twenty years his Edict had been the murder of many pious 
people. 

The Conference accordingly remained fruitless. The 
Diet, however, did not close without achieving an important 



PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 517 

result for the Protestants ; for the Emperor granted them, 
at their request, the Keligious Peace of Nuremberg. 

The main reason that induced Charles so far to tolera- 
tion and leniency was the trouble with the Turks. With 
regard to these, Luther now addressed himself once more 
to his countrymen with words of earnestness and weight. 
He published an ' Exhortation to prayer against the Turks,' 
teaching and warning his readers to regard them as a 
scourge of God, and make war against them as God com- 
manded. From this time also dates his hymn 

Lord, shield us with Thy Word, our Hope, 
And smite the Moslem and the Pope. 

When a tax was levied for the war with the Turks, Luther 
himself begged the Elector not to exempt him with his 
scanty goods. He would gladly, he said, if not too old and 
too infirm, ' be one of the army himself.' In 1542 he 
brought out for his countrymen a refutation of the Koran, 
written in earlier days, that they might learn what a 
shameful faith was Mahomed's, and not suffer themselves 
to be perverted, in case by God's decree they should see 
the Turks victorious, or even fall into their hands. 



Si.8 



CHAPTEE VI. 

PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES OF PROTESTANTISM. 
1541-44. 

The Reformation, against which the Emperor had so re- 
peatedly to promise his interference, and with which he 
was compelled to seek for a peaceful understanding, con- 
tinued meanwhile to gain ground in various parts 01 
Germany. 

Luther hailed with especial joy its victory in the town 
of Halle, which had formerly been a favourite seat of the 
Cardinal Albert and the chief scene of his wanton extrava- 
gances, and where now one of Luther's most intimate 
and most learned friends from Wittenberg, Justus Jonas, 
was installed as reformer and Evangelical pastor. Here 
the final impetus was given to the movement, among the 
mass of the population, of whom the large majority had 
long espoused the cause of Luther, by those money diffi- 
culties which played such a serious and grievous part in 
the life of Albert. When, in the spring of 1541, the town 
was called on to pay taxes to the amount of 22,000 gulden, 
to defray the Cardinal's debts, the citizens made the pay- 
ment conditional on their Council appointing an Evan- 
gelical preacher. Jonas was accordingly invited to the 
town, and received at once, on his arrival, a regular 
appointment through the magistracy and a committee oi 
the congregation. In Passion Week, when Luther was 
recovering from his illness and Albert had to attend the 
Diet at Ratisbon, Jonas for the first time took his place in 
the principal church in the town, then recently rebuilt 



PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 



5*9 



in the pulpit which the Archbishop had had erected with 
elaborate carvings in stone. Soon after the two other 
churches in the town received Evangelical preachers. 
The general regulation of Church matters was entrusted 
to Jonas, and remained under his control. Luther, 
however, supported his friend with his advice, and con- 
tinued on terms of trusted intimacy with him till his 
death. He did not conceal his joy that the ' wicked old 













Fig. 45.— Jonas. 



(From a portrait by Cranach, in his Album 
at Berlin, 1543.) 



rogue,' Albert, should have had to live to see this, and 
praised God for upholding His judgment upon earth. The 
collection of countless and wonderful relics with which the 
Cardinal, twenty years before, had sought to carry on the 
traffic in indulgences, so hateful to Luther, he now wished 
to exhibit in like manner at Mayence, his town of residence, 
Thereupon Luther, in 1542, published anonymously, but 
with the evident intention of being recognised as its author, 
a * New Paper from the Khine,' which announced to German 



520 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

Christendom a series of new, unheard-of relics, collected b;y 
his Highness the Elector, such as a piece of the left horn 
of Moses, three tongues of flame from his burning bush, 
&c, and lastly a whole drachm of his own true heart and 
half an ounce of his own truthful tongue, which his High- 
ness had added as a legacy by his last will and testament. 
The Pope, said Luther, had promised to anyone who should 
give a gulden in honour of the relics, a remission for ten 
years of whatever sins he pleased. Contempt of this kind 
was all that Luther found the exhibition deserved. Albert 
remained silent. 

About the same time the Elector John Frederick under- 
took a novel, important, though a dangerous, and to Luther 
an objectionable step, in connection with a bishopric then 
vacant. The Bishop of Naumburg had died. The Chapter 
of the Cathedral, with whom lay the election of his suc- 
cessor, were accustomed to guide their choice by the wish 
of the Elector, as their territorial sovereign. They now 
elected, without waiting to hear from John Frederick, who 
had seceded from Catholicism, the distinguished Julius von 
Pflug. The Elector, on the contrary, was anxious, as his 
privilege was hurt by this neglect, to nominate a bishop of 
his own choice, and, moreover, a member of the Augsburg 
Confession. His Chancellor, Briick, protested earnestly 
against this step, and Luther could not refrain from en- 
dorsing his remonstrance. If the common herd of Papists, 
he said, had been content to look on and see what had been 
done to priests and monks, they and the Emperor would 
not care to see the same things done with the Episcopate. 
The Elector thought this pusillanimous ; he wished to 
be bolder and more spirited than Luther. It was a pity 
only that his pious zeal lacked the more circumspect 
judgment of his advisers, and that the interests of his own 
authority were also concerned. He declined even to accept 
the advice of the Wittenberg theologians, who suggested 
that, at all events, the bishopric should be given to the 



PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 521 

eminent prince of the Empire, George of Anhalt, but chose 
Nicholas von Amsdorf — a man of better promise, not, indeed, 
solely from his theological principles, but as being likely 
to be more dependent on his territorial sovereign, though 
perhaps, as an unmarried man and a member of the 
nobility, less repugnant than any other Protestant theo- 
logian to the Catholics. On January 18, 1542, the Elector 
brought him in solemn state to Naumburg before the 
chapter there assembled. 

Luther was glad, nevertheless, to see an Evangelical 
bishop. He took care to introduce him in Evangelical 
manner. According to the Catholic doctrine, as is veil 
known, the Episcopate is transmitted from the Apostles by 
the act of consecration, with the laying on of hands and 
anointing, which can only be done by one bishop to another, 
and only a bishop can then consecrate priests or the clergy* 
The Keformers would easily have been able to continue 
this so-called Apostolical succession through the Prussian 
bishops who went over to them. But, as they never 
acknowledged the necessity of this with regard to the inferior 
clergy, neither did they with regard to the new bishop. 
Luther himself consecrated Amsdorf on January 20, together 
with two Evangelical superintendents of the neighbourhood, 
and the principal pastor and superintendent of the Evange- 
lical congregation at Naumburg, with prayer and the laying 
on of hands, in the presence of the various orders and a 
multitude of people from the town and district assembled in 
the Cathedral. The congregation were first informed that an 
honest, upright bishop had now been nominated for them 
by their sovereign and his estates in concert with the clergy, 
and they were called upon to express their own approval by 
an Amen, which was thereupon given loudly in response. 
In this manner at least it was sought to comply with a rule 
especially enjoined by Cyprian : namely, that a bishop 
should be elected in an assembly of neighbouring bishops 
and with the consent of his own congregation. Luther 



522 



LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 



gave an account of the ceremony in a tract, entitled 
'Example of the way to consecrate a true Christian 
bishop.' 

Brack's apprehensions meantime were only too well 
founded. The complaints raised against this consecration 
weighed heavily with even the more moderate opponents of the 




Fig. 46. — Amsdoef. (From an old woodcut.) 

Reformation, and especially with the Emperor. It was at the 
same time very evident that, as we have elsewhere observed, 
the Elector, good Churchman as he was by disposition, fre- 
quently displayed too little energy in regard to the general 
relations and interests of his Church. Thus the arrange- 
ments required for the bishopric remained neglected, and 



PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 523 

the new bishop was furnished with a most inadequate 
maintenance. Luther complained that the Electoral Court 
undertook great things, and then left them sticking in the 
mire. Moreover, among many of the temporal lords, even 
on the Protestant side, there were signs of spiteful jealousy 
and suspicion against the honours and advantages enjoyed 
by their theologians. Luther himself proceeded therefore 
with the utmost possible caution. He even declined once 
a present of venison from his friend Amsdorf, in order not 
to give occasion for calumny by the * Centaurs at Court ; ' 
though, as he said, they themselves had devoured every- 
thing, without any prickings of conscience. ' Let them,' 
he wrote to Amsdorf, ' guzzle in God's name or in any 
other.' 

Scarcely had the Elector's instalment of the bishop 
(1542) awakened these bitter feelings of resentment, when a 
war threatened to break out between the Elector and his 
cousin and fellow-Protestant, Duke Maurice of Saxony, 
the successor of his late father Henry— a war which would 
have imperilled more than anything else the position of the 
Protestants in the Empire, and which stirred and disquieted 
Luther to his inmost soul. 

Between the ducal, or Albertine, and the Electoral, or 
Ernestine lines of the princely house of Saxony, various 
rights were in dispute, and among them, in particular, 
those of supreme jurisdiction over the little town of Wurzen, 
belonging to the bishopric of Meissen. When now the 
Bishop of Meissen refused to let the subsidy, levied at 
Wurzen for the war against the Turks, be forwarded to the 
Elector, the latter, in March 1542, quickly sent thither 
his troops. Maurice at once called out his own troops 
against him. Both continued to arm, and prepared to 
fight. Luther thereupon, in a letter of April 7, intended 
for publication, appealed to them and their Estates in terms 
of heartfelt Christian fervour and perfect frankness. He 
reminded them of the Scriptural admonition to keep peace ; 



524 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

of the close relationship of the two princes as the sons ot 
two sisters; of their noble birth; of their subjects, the 
burghers and peasants, who were so closely intermingled 
by marriage that the war would be no war, but a mere 
family brawl; furthermore, of the petty ground of their 
fierce contention, just as if two drunken rustics were 
fighting in a tavern about a glass of beer, or two idiots 
about a bit of bread ; of the shame and scandal for the 
Gospel ; and of the triumph of their enemies and the devil, 
who would rejoice to see this little spark kindle into a con- 
flagration. If either of the two, instead of using force, 
would declare himself content with what was just and right, 
whether it were his own Elector or the Duke, Luther for his 
part would assist him with his prayers, and he might then 
trust himself with confidence against aggression, and leave 
spear and musket to the children of discontent. He told 
the others that they had incurred the ban and the vengeance 
of God ; nay, he advised all who had to fight under such an 
unpeaceful prince to run from the field as fast as they 
eould. 

The Landgrave Philip, who had hitherto, on account of 
his second marriage, continued somewhat on strained terms 
with John Frederick, brought about at this critical moment 
a peaceful understanding between him and Maurice. 
The young duke, however, burned with an ambition which 
longed to satisfy itself, even at the expense of his cousin and 
other Protestant princes, and his power, moreover, was far 
superior to the Elector's. Luther augured evil for the 
future. 

The Eeformation was now accepted in the territory also 
of Duke Henry of Brunswick. The Landgrave Philip and 
John Frederick had taken the field together against him, 
on account of his having attacked the Evangelical town 
of Goslar and sought defiantly to execute against it a sen- 
tence, in connection with ecclesiastical matters, which had 
threatened it from the Imperial Chamber, but was sus- 



PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 525 

pended by the Emperor. This war against ' Henry the 
Incendiary ' Luther considered just and necessary, the ques- 
tion being one of protecting the oppressed. Wolfenbiittel, 
whose fortress the Duke boasted to be impregnable, speedily 
succumbed on August 13, 1542, to the fate of war and the 
boldness of Philip. Luther saw with triumph how the 
fortress which, it was reputed, could stand a six years' 
siege, had fallen in three days by the help of God. He 
hoped only that the conquerors would be humble and give 
the glory of the exploit to God. They then occupied the 
land, the prince of which fled, and proceeded to establish 
the Evangelical Church, in accordance with the general 
wish of the population. 

Maurice of Saxony, who still strenuously adhered to the 
Evangelical confession and to his rights as protector of the 
Church, not only continued the reformation commenced in 
the Duchy by his father, but succeeded in extending it 
peacefully to the bishopric of Merseburg. The chapter 
there decided, in 1544, on his nomination, to elect to the 
vacant see his young brother Augustus, who, not being 
himself an ecclesiastic, delegated at once his episcopal 
functions to George of Anhalt, Luther's pious-minded friend. 
Luther in the summer of the following year consecrated 
him, in the same manner as Amsdorf, together with several 
superintendents, and with Bugenhagen, Cruciger, and Jonas. 

Events far greater and more important were occurring 
in the archbishopric of Cologne. Here an Archbishop at 
once and Elector, the aged, worthy Hermann of Wied, 
had resolved, from his own free conviction, to undertake 
a reformation on the basis of the Gospel. In 1543 he 
invited Melancthon for this purpose from Wittenberg. 
Melancthon's fellow-labourer was Butzer, who had the re- 
putation of always allowing himself to be carried too far by 
his zeal for general unity in the Church, and at the same 
time, in regard to the doctrine of the Sacrament, even as 
accepted by the Wittenberg Concord, of preferring a more 



526 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

vague conception of his own. Luther, however, promoted 
the undertaking with thanks to God, himself furthered Me- 
lancthon's going, assured him of his entire confidence, and 
learned from him with joy of the Archbishop's uprightness, 
penetration, and constancy. In like manner, the Bishop of 
Minister also began to attempt a reformation, in conformity 
with the wishes of his Estates. 

The Emperor at length, who since 1542 had been agahj 
at war with France, and who needed therefore all the as- 
sistance that his German Estates could give him, displayed 
at a now Diet at Spires, in 1544, more gracious considera- 
tion to the Protestants than he had ever done before. In 
the Imperial Eecess he promised not only to endeavour to 
bring about a general Council, to be assembled in Germany, 
but undertook, since the meeting of such a Council was still 
uncertain, to convoke another Diet, which should itself deal 
with the religion in dispute. In the meantime, he and the 
various Estates of the Empire would consider and prepare a 
scheme for Christian unity and a general Christian reforma- 
tion. The Archbishop Albert, now wholly embittered against 
the Eeformation, had issued a warning, after the Diet of 1541, 
against any agreement to hold a Council on German soii, 
as the Protestant poison would here have <oo jDOwerful an 
influence ; in a national German Council he foresaw the 
threatening danger of a schism. The resolutions passed 
at Spires brought clown severe reproaches from the Pope 
against the Emperor. What particularly scandalised his 
Christian Holiness was that laymen — aye, laymen, who 
supported the condemned heretics — were to sit as judges in 
matters concerning the Church and the priesthood. 

Protestantism, both in its extent and power, had now 
reached a point of progress in the German Empire which 
seemed to offer a possibility of its becoming the religion of 
the great majority of the nation, and even of this majority 
being united. Charles V., nevertheless, kept his eyes steadily 
fixed on his original goal — nay, he probably felt himself 



PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 



i-i 



nearer to it than ever. By his concessions he obtained an 
army, which enabled him in the September of that year i? 
conclude a durable peace with King Francis, stipulating, aa 
before, but secretly, for mutual co-operation for the restora- 
tion of Catholic unity in the Church. The next thing to 
be done was to persuade the Pope at length to convene a 
Council, which should serve this object in the sense in- 
tended by the Emperor, and then to enforce by its authority 
the final subjection of the Protestants. 

This possibility of a final triumph of Protestantism 
might have been counted on with hope, if only that breath 
of the Spirit which had once been stirred by the Eeformer 
and had already responded to his efforts had remained in 
full force and vigour in the hearts of the German people ; 
and if the new Spirit, thus awakened, had really penetrated 
the masses, or, at least, the influential classes and high 
personages who espoused the new faith, and had purified 
and strengthened them to fight, to work, and to suffer. 
But Luther complained from the very first, and more and 
more as time went on, how sadly this Spirit was wanting 
to assist him in proclaiming the Gospel and combating the 
anti- Christian system of Eome. Thus he again complained, 
when hearing of what had happened at Cologne, at Minister, 
and at Brunswick, that ' much evil and little good happens 
to us ; ' he adapted to his own Church community the 
proverb, ' The nearer Borne, the worse the Christian,' as 
well as the words of the prophets, lamenting the iniquity 
of Jerusalem, the holy city. In his zeal he reproached the 
Evangelical congregations even more severely than his 
Catholic and Popish opponents would ever have ventured 
to reproach them, inasmuch as their own moral position, 
to say the least, was not a whit better. But against the 
former, his own brethren, Luther had to complain of base 
ingratitude to God for the signal benefits He had vouch- 
safed them. Thus the peasantry, in particular, he taxed 
again and again with their old selfish and obstinate indif- 



528 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

ference and stupidity ; the burghers with their luxury and 
service of Mammon ; and his fellow-countrymen in general 
with their gluttony and their coarse and carnal appetites. It 
pained him most to see these sins prevail among his nearest 
fellow-townsmen and followers, his Wittenbergers ; and he 
lashed out with all his force against the students whom, 
as a class, he saw addicted to unchastity and to ' swinish 
vices,' as he called them. The authorities, in his opinion, 
were far too unmindful of their high appointment by God, 
of which he had taken such pains to assure them. When 
Church discipline came to be really introduced and made 
more stringent, he foresaw quite well that it would only touch 
the peasants, and not reach the upper classes. Among the 
great nobles at Court, especially at Dresden, but also at 
that of the Elector, he found ' violent Centaurs and greedy 
Harpies,' who preyed upon the Keformation and disgraced 
it, and in whose midst it was difficult — nay, impossible — 
even for an honest, right-minded ruler to govern as a true 
Christian. He had already, and especially in these latter 
years, been in conflict with lawyers, including some of well- 
recognised conscientiousness, such as his colleague and 
friend Schurf, about many questions in which they declared 
themselves unable to deviate from theories of the canon 
or even the Eoman law, which he considered unchristian 
and immoral. He declared it, for example, to be an insult 
to the law of God that they should insist so strongly on 
the obligation of vows of marriage, made by young people 
in secret and against their parents' will. So far from 
anticipating the triumph of the Evangelical religion, while 
such was the condition of Germans and German Protes- 
tants, he predicted with anxiety heavy punishment for his 
country, and declared that God would assuredly cause the 
confessors of the Gospel to be purged and sifted by calamity. 
Just at that time, when a decisive moment was ap- 
proaching for the great ecclesiastical contest in Germany, 
Luther felt himself constrained to rend asunder once more 






PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 529 

the bond of peace and mutual toleration which had been 
established with such trouble between himself and the Swiss 
Evangelicals. In doing so, he had seen no reason either 
to change or conceal his old opinion about Zwingli. The 
Swiss, on the other hand, offended by Luther's utterances, 
took, in a manner, their honoured teacher and reformer 
under their protection ; from which Luther concluded that 
they still clung to all his errors. A lurking distrust of 
Luther had never been wholly dispelled among them. 
Luther heard, moreover, of corrupting influences still exer- 
cised by the Sacramentarians outside Switzerland. A letter 
reached him to that effect from some of his adherents at 
Venice, whose complaints of the mischievous results of the 
Sacramental controversy among their fellow-worshippers 
ascribed that controversy to the continued influence of 
Zwinglianism. In August 1543 he wrote to the Zurich printer 
Froschauer, who had presented him with a translation of 
the Bible made by the preacher of that town, saying briefly 
and frankly that he could have no fellowship with them, 
and that he had no desire to share the blame of their per- 
nicious doctrine ; he was sorry ' that they should have 
laboured in vain, and should after all be lost.' Even in 
a scheme of reformation which Butzer, with Melancthon, 
had prepared for Cologne, he now discovered some sus- 
picious articles about the Sacrament, to which a criticism 
of Amsdorf had drawn his notice ; they passed over, it 
appeared, Luther's declaration, already agreed on, about 
the substantial presence of Christ's Body in the Sacra- 
ment, or merely ' mumbled it,' as was Luther's expression. 
Nay, he heard it said that even Wittenberg and himself 
would not adhere to his doctrine on this point. Occasion, 
indeed, was given for this remark by the circumstance that 
the ancient usage of the Elevation of the Host, which, 
though connected with the Catholic idea of sacrifice, had 
nevertheless been hitherto retained, though interpreted in 
another sense, was now at length abolished at Wittenberg. 

M M 



53o LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

After much anger and discontent, Luther broke out, in 
September 1544, with the tract, ' Short Confession of the 
Holy Sacrament.' He had nothing to do with any ne^v 
refutation of false teachers — these, he said, had already 
been frequently convicted by him as open blasphemers — 
but simply to testify once more against the ' fanatics and 
enemies of the Sacrament, Carlstadt, Zwingli, (Ecolam- 
padius, Schwenkfeld, and their disciples,' and once and 
for all to renounce all fellowship with these lost souls. 

Alarming reports were spread about attacks being 
also meditated by Luther against Butzer and Melancthon. 
Melancthon himself trembled ; he seriously feared he 
should be compelled to retire into exile. But not a word 
did Luther say against Butzer, beyond calling him, as he 
did now, a chatterbox. Against Melancthon we find no- 
where, not even in Luther's letters to his intimate 
friends, a single harsh or menacing expression from his 
lips. He maintained his confidence in him, even in 
respect to the later proceedings in the Church. When 
urged to publish a collection of his Latin writings, he long 
refused to do so, as he says in the preface to his edition of 
1545, because there were already such excellent works on 
Christian doctrine, such as, in particular, the ' Loci Com- 
munes ' of Melancthon, which its author had recently re- 
vised. It must be regretted that Melancthon, at moments 
like these, which must have caused him pain, did not open 
his heart with more freedom and courage to the friend 
whose heart still beat with such warm and unchanging 
affection for himself. 

Luther never, till the day of his death, bestowed much 
care or calculation on the immediate consequences of his 
acts and of the work to which he felt himself called and 
urged by God, and which certainly brought out in strong 
relief the individuality of his nature. While committing, 
as he did, the cause to God alone, he kept steadily in view 
the ultimate goal to which God was surely guiding it — nay, 



PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 531 

that goal was immediately before his eyes. His confident 
belief in the near approach of the last day, when the Lord 
would solve all these earthly doubts and difficulties, and 
manifest Himself in the perfect glory and bliss of His 
kingdom, remained in him unaltered from the beginning of 
his struggle to the end of his labours. We recognise in 
this belief the intensity of his own longings, wrestlings, and 
strivings for this end, as also the sincerity of his own con- 
viction, little as the days of which we are now speaking, 
so busy with events of every kind, corresponded with the 
time ordained by God. Luther stretched out his view and 
aspirations beyond this world, all the time that he was 
teaching Christians again how to honour the world in the 
moral duties assigned to them, and to enjoy its blessings 
and benefits with thankfulness to God. ' No man knoweth 
the day or the hour ' — of this he constantly reminded them, 
and warned them against idle speculations. But his hopes, 
nevertheless, he still rested on the nearness of the end. 
These hopes he expressed with peculiar assurance in a small 
Latin tract, written during these later years of his life, in 
which he treats of Biblical chronology, and further of the 
epochal years in the history of the world. In referring, 
for example, to the wide-spread theory, originating with 
the Jews, of a great Week of six thousand years, to be fol- 
lowed by the final and everlasting Day of Best, he sought 
with much ingenuity of reasoning to prove that of those 
six thousand years probably only half would be accom- 
plished. Since now, according to his chronology, the year 
1,540 was the 5,500th year of the world, the end was bound 
to be at hand — nay, was already overdue — when his little 
book appeared in 1541. Yet, whatever were his views on 
this point, he never, like so many others, allowed himself 
to be drawn by such hopes and desires into illusions dan- 
gerous in practice. 

This year passed by without any further or greater 
literary labour on his part. 

M M 2 



532 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

In addition to this continued polemic against the pope- 
dom and false teachers, we must not omit to mention some 
characteristic controversial writings, provoked from him 
by his indignation at the attacks on Christianity by Jews, 
nay, by their seduction of many Christians. As early as 
1538, a strange rumour of a ' Jewish rabble ' in Moravia — 
a country rich in sectaries— having induced Christians to 
accept the Mosaic law, had called forth from him a public 
' Letter against the Sabbathers.' He launched out with 
vehemence against them in 1543 in some further tracts, 
inveighing mainly against the dirty insults and savage 
blasphemies which the brazen-faced Jews dared to employ 
towards Christ and Christians, and also against the usurers, 
in whose toils the Christians were ensnared. He declared 
even that their synagogues, the scene of their blasphemies 
and calumnies, should be burnt, and they themselves com- 
pelled to take to honest handicraft, or be hunted from the 
country. 

In the grand and beautiful labour of his life, the 
German translation of the Bible, he was busily occupied 
until his death. After the second chief edition had appeared, 
in 1541, he endeavoured to improve, at least in some 
points, those which followed in 1543 and 1545. He medi- 
tated also revising and further improving the most important 
of his sermons, which have been left to posterity. After 
having undertaken this task in 1540 with a number of 
them, he caused three years later the ' Summer-Postills,' 
which Koth had previously edited and brought out, to be pub- 
lished in a new form by his colleague Cruciger. This work 
was now completed by the addition of his sermons on the 
Epistles. 

We have already seen how earnestly, even before the 
great end should come, Luther longed for his eternal rest, 
and for release from the struggles and labours of his earthly 
life, and the burden of his bodily suffering. He spoke of 
his death with calmness but with deep earnestness, and, 



PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 533 

indeed, with a touch of humour which pained those who 
heard him speak, or read his writings. Thus, when in 
March 1544 the Elector's wife, Sybil, asked him 'anxiously 
and diligently ' about his own health and that of his wife 
and children, he answered : ' Thank God, we are well, and 
better than we deserve of God. But no wonder, if I am 
sometimes shaky in the head. Old age is creeping on me, 
which in itself is cold and unsightly, and I am ill and 
weak. The pitcher goes to the well until it breaks. I 
have lived long enough ; God grant me a happy end, that 
this useless body may reach His people beneath the earth, 
and go to feed the worms. Consider that I have seen the 
best that I shall ever see on earth. For it looks as if evil 
times were coming. God help his own. Amen.' 



534 



CHAPTEE VII. 

luther's later life : DOMESTIC and personal details. 

Frequently as Luther complained of his old age and ever- 
increasing weakness, lassitude, and uselessness, his writings 
and letters give evidence not only of an indomitable power 
and unquenchable ardour, but also, and often enough, of 
those cheerful, merry moods, which rose superior to all his 
sufferings, disappointments, and anger. He himself de- 
clared that his many enemies, especially the sectaries, who 
were always attacking him, always made him young again. 
The true source of his strength he found in his Lord and 
Saviour, Whose strength is made perfect in weakness, and 
to Whom he clung with a firm and tranquil faith. To 
this, indeed, we must add one particularly favourable 
influence, in regard to his life and calling, which had been 
awakened since his marriage. In speaking of his family, 
his wife, and his children, he is always full of thanks to 
God ; his heart swells with emotion, and he breathes amid 
his heated labours and struggles a fresh and bracing air. 
Just as, during the Diet of Augsburg, he had pointed ouf 
encouragingly to the Elector the happy Paradise which God 
had allowed to bloom for him in his little boys and girls, 
so he himself was permitted to experience and enjoy this 
Paradise at home. In his domestic no less than in his 
public life he saw a vocation marked out for him by God ; 
not, indeed, as if he, the Eeformer, had here any peculiar 
path of life, or exceptional duties to perform, but so that 
in that holy estate ordained for all men, however despised 
by arrogant monks and priests, and dishonoured by the 



LUTHER'S LATER LIFE, 



53$ 




Fig. 47. — Luthek. (From a portrait by Cranach, in his Album, 
at Berlin.) 



536 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS, 

sensual, he felt himself called on to serve God, as was the 
duty of all men and all Christians alike, and to enjoy the 
blessings which God had given him. 

Five children were now growing up. The eldest, John, 
or Hanschen (Jack), was followed, during the troublous 
days of 1527, by his first little daughter, Elizabeth. Eight 
months after, as he told a friend, she already said good-bye 
to him, to go to Christ, through death to life ; and he was 
forced to marvel how sick at heart, nay, almost womanish, 
he felt at her departure. In May 1529 he was comforted 
to seme extent by the birth of a little Magdalene or Lenchen 
(Lena). Then followed the boys: Martin in 1531, and 
Paul in 1533. The former was born only a few days— if 
not the very day— before the feast of St. Martin, and the 
birthday of his father ; hence he received the same name. 
His son Paul he named in memory of the great Apostle, to 
whom he owed so much. At his baptism he expressed the 
hope that ' perhaps the Lord God might train up in him a 
new enemy of the Pope or the Turks.' The youngest child 
was a little daughter, Margaret, who was born in 1534. 

His family included also an aunt of his wife, Magdalene 
von Bora. She had been formerly a nun in the same 
cloister as her niece, where she had filled the post of head- 
nurse. She lived among Luther's children like a beloved 
grandmother. It was she whom Luther meant by the 
' Aunt Lena,' of whom he wrote to his little Hans in 1530 
saying, ' Give her a kiss from me ; ' and when in 1537 he 
was able to travel homewards from Schmalkald, where he 
had been in such imminent peril of death, he wrote to his 
wife : 'Let the dear little children, together with Aunt 
Lena, thank their true Father in Heaven.' She died, 
probably, shortly afterwards. Luther comforted her with 
the words : ' You will not die, but sleep away as in a cradle, 
and when the morning dawns, you will rise and live for 
ever.' 

At this time Luther had two orphan nieces living 



LUTHER'S LATER LIFE. 



53? 




538 



LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 



with him, Lene and Else Kaufmann of Mansfeld, sisters of 
Cyriac, whom we found with him at Coburg, and also a young 
relative, of whom we know nothing further than that her name 
was Anna. Lene was betrothed in 1538 to the worthy trea- 
surer of the University of Wittenberg, Ambrosius Berndt, and 
Luther gave the wedding. He used also from time to time 
to have some young student nephews at his house. 

When his boys grew up and the time came for them to 




Fig. 49.— The "Luther-House " (previously the Convent), before 
its recent restoration. 



learn, he had a resident tutor for them. For his own 
assistance he engaged a young man as amanuensis ; thus 
we find Yeit Dietrich with him at Coburg in this capacity. 
We hear afterwards of a young pupil — indeed, of two or 
more— who lived with Dietrich at Luther's house. This 
seems, however, to have somewhat overtaxed his wife ; in 
the autumn of 1534 Dietrich left his house on that 
account. 

Luther, like other professors, used to take several 



LUTHER'S LATER LIFE. 



539 



students for payment to his table. Among these there 
were men of riper years who were eager, nevertheless, to 
share in the studies at Wittenberg, and, above all things, 
to make his acquaintance. Besides this, his house was 
open to a number of guests, theologians and others, of high 
or low degree, who called on him in passing through the 
town. 

The dwelling-place of this large and growing household 




Fig. 50.- Luther's Room. 



was a portion of the former Convent. 
Frederick had assigned it to Luther 
house, which had not been completed 
tion began, was still unfinished when 
and it needed many improvements, 
architectural features of the building 
recent restoration. It stood against 
was protected by the Elbe. His own 
aut in this direction, and formed 



The Elector John 
for his own. The 
when the Eeforma- 
Luther went there, 
The present richer 

date from a very 
the town wall, and 

small study looked 
a gable above the 



540 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

water of the moat ; though, as he complained in 1530, 
it was threatened with alterations for military purposes, 
and perhaps during his lifetime fell a prey to them. Only 
one of the larger rooms of the house, situated in front, has 
been preserved in the recollection of posterity, and is now 
called Luther's room. It was probably the chief sitting- 
room of the family. 

The young couple possessed at first a very slender 
maintenance. Neither of them had any private means. 
When, in 1527, Luther was lying apparently on his death- 
bed, he had nothing to leave his wife but the cups which 
had been given him as presents, and it happened that he 
was obliged to pawn even these to find money for their 
immediate wants. 

By degrees, however, his income and property in- 
creased. His salary as professor at the University (he 
received no honorarium for his lectures) was raised on his 
marriage by the Elector John from 100 to 200 gulden, and 
John Frederick added 100 gulden more — the value of a 
gulden at that time being equal to about 16 marks of the 
present German money. He received, also, regular pay- 
ments in kind. Now and then he had a special present 
from the Elector, such as a fine piece of cloth, a cask of 
wine, or some venison, with greetings from his Highness. 
In 1536 John Frederick sent him two casks of wine, 
saying that it was that year's growth of his vineyards, and 
that Luther would find how good it was when he tasted it. 
Luther's share of his father's property was 250 gulden, 
which he was to be paid later in small instalments by his 
brother James, who was heir to the real estate. In 1539 
Bugenhagen brought him from Denmark an offering of 
100 gulden, and two years afterwards the Danish king gave 
him and his children an allowance of 50 gulden a year. 
Luther never troubled himself much about his expenses, 
and gave with generous liberality what he earned. His wife 
kept things together for the household, managed it with 






LUTHER'S LATER LIFE. 541 

business-like energy and talent, and tried to add to their 
income. 

They enlarged their garden by buying some more strips 
adjoining it, as well as a field. In 1540 Luther purchased 
for 610 gulden from a brother of his wife, who was in needy 
circumstances, the small farm of Ziilsdorf or Zulsdorf, 
between Leipzig and Borna — it must not be confounded 
with another village of the same name. The market at 
Wittenberg being usually very poorly furnished, his wife 
sought to supply their domestic wants by her own economy. 
She planted the garden with all sorts of trees, among these 
even mulberry-trees and fig-trees, and she cultivated also 
hops ; and there was a small fish-pond. This little pro- 
perty she loved to manage and superintend in person. At 
Wittenberg she brewed, as was then the custom, their own 
beer, the Convent being privileged in that respect. We hear 
of her keeping a number of pigs, and arranging for their 
sale. Luther incidentally .makes mention of a coachman 
among his other servants. Finally, in 1541, Luther pur- 
chased a small house near his residence at the Convent, 
fearing that he would have to give up the latter entirely 
for the work of fortification, and thus be prevented from 
leaving it to his wife. He was only obliged in ten years to 
pay off a portion of the purchase money. 

In this happy married life and home the great Eeformer 
found his peace and refreshment ; in it he found his voca- 
tion as a man, a husband, and a father. Speaking from 
his own experience he said : ' Next to God's Word, the 
world has no more precious treasure than holy matrimony. 
God's best gift is a pious, cheerful, God-fearing, home- 
keeping wife, with whom you may live peacefully, to whom 
you can entrust your goods, and body, and life.' He speaks 
of the married state, moreover, as a life which, if rightly 
led, is full to overflowing of good works. He knows, on 
the other hand, of many ' stubborn and strange couples, 
who neither care for their children, nor love each other 



542 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

from their hearts.' Such people, he said, were not human 
beings ; they made their homes a hell. 

In his language about this life and his own conduct in 
it, there is no trace of sentimentality, exaggerated emotion, 
or artificial idealism. It is a strong, sturdy, and, as many 
have thought, a somewhat rough genuineness of nature, 
but at the same time full of tenderness, purity, and fervour ; 
and with it is combined that heartfelt and loyal devotion 
to his Heavenly Creator and Lord, and to His Will and 
His commands, which marked the character of Luther to 
the last. 

With regard to his children, Luther had resolved from 
the moment of their birth to consecrate them to God, and 
wean them from a wicked, corrupt, and accursed world. 
In several of his letters he entreats his friends with great 
earnestness to stand godfather to one of his children, and to 
help the poor little heathen to become a Christian, and pass 
from the death of sin to a holy and blessed regeneration. 
In making this request of a young Bohemian nobleman, 
then staying in his house, on behalf of his son Martin, he 
grew so earnest that, to the surprise of all present, his 
voice trembled ; this, he said, was caused by the Holy 
Spirit of God, for the cause he was pleading was God's, 
and it demanded reverence. And yet, in the simple, 
natural, innocent, and happy ways of children he recog- 
nised the precious handiwork of God and His protecting 
Hand. He loved to watch the games and pleasures of his 
little ones ; all they did was so spontaneous and so natural. 
Children, he said, believe so simply and undoubtedly that 
God is in Heaven and is their God and their dear Father, 
and that there is everlasting life. On hearing one day one 
of his children prattling about this life and of the great joy 
in Heaven with eating, and dancing, and so forth, he said, 
' Their life is the most blessed and the best ; they have 
none but pure thoughts and happy imaginations.' At the 
sight of his little children seated round the table, he called 



LUTHER'S LATER LIFE. S43 

So mind the exhortation of Jesus, that we must ' become as 
little children ; ' and added, ' Ah ! dear God ! Thou hast 
done clumsily in exalting children — such poor little simple- 
tons — so high. Is it just and right that Thou shouldst 
reject the wise, and receive the foolish ? But God our 
Lord has purer thoughts than we have ; He must, there- 
fore, refine us, as said the fanatics ; He must hew great 
boughs and chips from us, before He makes such children 
and little simpletons of us.' 

In what a childlike spirit Luther understood to talk to 
his children is shown by his letter from Coburg to his little 
Hans, then fourteen years old. He himself taught them 
to pray, to sing, and to repeat the Catechism. Of his little 
daughter Margaret he could tell one of her godfathers how 
she had learnt to sing hymns when only four years 
old. His hymn ' From the highest Heaven I come,' the 
freshest, most joyful, most childlike song that has ever 
been heard from children's lips at Christmas, he composed 
as a father who celebrated that joyous festival with his own 
children. It appeared first in the year 1535. He might 
well, after the manner of old Festival plays, have let an 
angel step in among them, who in the opening verses 
should bring them the good tidings in the Gospel, to which 
they should answer with ' Therefore let us all be joyful.' 
The words ' Therefore I am always joyful, Free to dance 
and free to sing, call to mind an old custom of accompany- 
ing the Christmas hymn with a dance. 

Luther warned against all outbursts of passion and undue 
severity towards children, and carefully guarded himself 
against such errors, remembering the bitter experiences of 
his own childhood in that respect. But he conld be angry 
and strict enough when occasion required ; he used to say 
he would rather have a dead son than a bad one. 

There was no really good school at Wittenberg for his 
boys, and Luther himself could not devote as much time to 
them as they required. He took a resident tutor for them, 



544 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

a young theologian. His boy John nevertheless gave some 
trouble with his teaching and bringing up. His father, 
contrary to his own wishes, seems to have been too weak, 
and his mother's fondness for her first-born seems to have 
somewhat spoilt him. Luther gave the boy over afterwards 
to his friend Mark Crodel, the Eector of the school at Torgau, 
whom he held in high respect as a grammarian, and as a 
pedagogue of grave and strict morals. 

His favourite child was little Lena, a pious, gentle, 
affectionate little girl, and devoted to him with her whole 
heart. A charming picture of her remains, by Cranach, a 
friend of the family. But she died in the bloom of 
early youth, on September 20, 1542, after a long and 
severe illness. The grief he had felt at the loss of his 
daughter Elizabeth was now renewed and intensified. 
When she was lying on her sick-bed, he said, ' I love her 
very much indeed ; but, dear God, if it is Thy will to take 
her hence, I would gladly she were with Thee.' To Magdalene 
herself he said, ' Lena, dear, my little daughter, thou 
wouldst love to remain here with thy father ; art thou 
willing to go to that other Father?' 'Yes, dear father,' 
she answered; 'just as God wills.' And when she was 
dying, he fell on his knees beside her bed, wept bitterly, 
and prayed for her redemption, and she fell asleep in his 
arms. As she lay in her coffin, he looked at her and 
exclaimed, ' Ah ! my darling Lena, thou wilt rise again and 
shine like a star — yea, as the sun ; ' and added, ' I am 
happy in the spirit, but in the flesh I am very sorrowful. 
The flesh will not be subdued : parting troubles one above 
measure ; it is a wonderful thing to think that she is 
assuredly in peace, and that all is well with her, and yet to 
be so sad.' To the mourners he said, ' I have sent a saint 
to Heaven : could mine be such a death as hers, I would 
welcome such a death this moment.' He expressed the 
same sorrow, and the same exultation in his letters to his 
friends. To Jonas he wrote : ' You will have heard that 






LUTHER S LATER LIFE. 545 

my dearest daughter Magdalene is born again in the ever- 
lasting kingdom of Christ. Although I and my wife ought 
only to thank God with joy for her happy departure, 



Fig. 51.— Luther's Daughter 'Lene.' (From Cranach's portrait.) 

whereby she has escaped the power of the world, the flesh, 
the Turks, and the devil, yet so strong is natural love that 
we cannot bear it without sobs and sighs from the heart, 

N N 



546 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

without a bitter sense of death in ourselves. So deeply 
printed on our hearts are her ways, her words, her gestures, 
whether alive or dying, that even Christ's death cannot 
drive away this agony.' His little Hans, whom his sick 
sister longed to see once more, he had sent for from Torgau 
a fortnight before she died : he wrote for that purpose to 
Crodel, saying ' I would not have my conscience reproach 
me afterwards for having neglected anything.' But when 
several weeks later, about Christmas-time, under the in- 
fluence of grief and the tender words which his mother had 
spoken to him, a desire came over the boy to leave Torgau 
and live at home, his father exhorted him to conquer his 
sorrow like a man, not to increase by his own the grief of 
his mother, and to obey God, who had appointed him, 
through his parents' direction, to live at Torgau. 

The care of the children and of the whole household 
fell to the share of Frau Luther, and her husband could 
trust her with it in perfect confidence. She was a 
woman of strong, ruling, practical nature, who enjoyed hard 
work and plenty of it. She served her husband at all 
times, after her own manner, with faithful and affectionate 
devotion. He must often have felt grateful, amidst his 
physical and mental sufferings, and the violent storms and 
temptations that vexed his soul, that a helpmate of such a 
sound constitution, such strong nerves, and such a clever, 
sensible mind should have fallen to his share. 

Luther lived with her in thankful love and harmony ; 
nor have even the calumnies of malicious enemies been able 
to cast a shadow of doubt upon the perfect concord of his 
married life. In his ' Table Talk ' he says of her : ' I am, 
thank God, very well, for I have a pious, faithful wife, on 
whom a man may safely rest his heart.' And again he 
said once to her, ' Katie, you have a pious husband, who 
loves you ; you are an empress.' In words now grave, now 
humorous, he told her of his tender love for her ; and how 
trustful and open-hearted were their relations to each other 



LUTHER S LATER LIFE. 547 

we gather from the way in which he mocks and occasionally 
teases her for her little weaknesses. In later life and in his 
last letters he calls her his 'heartily beloved housewife' 
and his ' darling,' and he often signs himsolf ' your love ' 
and * your old love,' and again ' your dear lord.' Still he 
said frankly and quietly that his original suspicion that 
Catharine was proud was well-founded. In some of his 
letters he speaks of her as his ' lord Katie ' and his 
' gracious wife,' and of himself as her ' willing servant.' 
Once he declared that if he had to marry again, he would 
carve an obedient wife out of stone, as he despaired of 
finding obedience in wives. He spoke also of the talkative- 
ness of his Katie. Eeferring to her loving but over-anxious 
care for him on his last journey, he called her a holy, careful 
woman. From her thrift and energy she gained from him 
the nicknames of Lady Zulsdorf, and Lady of the Pigmarket ; 
thus one of his last letters is addressed to ' my heartily 
beloved housewife, Catharine, Lady Luther, Lady Doctor, 
Lady Zulsdorf, Lady of the Pigmarket, and whatever else 
she may be.' 

The ' careful ' Catharine was not permitted to check the 
kind liberality of her husband. His friend Mathesius tells 
us, of their early married life, ' A poor man made him a 
pitiful tale of distress, and having no cash with him, Luther 
came to his wife — she being then confined — for the god- 
parents' money, and brought it to the poor man, saying, ' God 
is rich, He will supply what is wanted.' Afterwards, how- 
ever, he grew more careful, seeing how often he was imposed 
upon. 'Kogues,' he said, * have sharpened my wits.' An 
example of how particular, nay anxious, he was never 
even to let it seem that he sought for presents or other 
profit for himself, was given in his letter to Amsdorf, 
declining a gift of venison. He wrote once to the Elector 
John, who had sent him an offering : ' I have unfortunately 
more, especially from your Highness, than I can con- 
scientiously keep. As a preacher, it is not fitting for me to 

N N 2 



'S4& LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

enjoy a superfluity, nor do I covet it ; . . . therefore 1 
beseech your Highness to wait until I ask of you. 5 In 1539, 
when Bugenhagen brought to him the hundred gulden from 
the King of Denmark, he wished to give him half of it, for 
the service Bugenhagen had rendered him during his 
absence. For his office of preacher in the town church he 
never received any payment ; the town from time to time 
made him a present of wine from the council-cellar, and 
lime and stones for building his house. For his writings 
he received nothing from the publishers. Against over- 
anxious cares and troubles, and setting her heart too much 
on worldly possessions, he earnestly cautioned his wife, and 
insisted that amid the numerous household matters she 
should not neglect to read the Bible. Once in 1535 he 
promised her fifty gulden if she would read the Bible 
through, whereupon, as he told a friend, it became a ' very 
serious matter to her.' 

Luther frequently assisted his wife in her household. 
He was very fond of gardening and agriculture, and we 
have, seen how he sent commissions to friends for stocking 
his garden at Wittenberg. On one occasion, when going to 
fish with his wife in their little pond, he noticed with joy 
how she took more pleasure in her few fish than many a 
nobleman did in his great lakes with many hundred draughts 
of fishes. In 1539 he had to order a chest at Torgau for 
his ' lord Katie,' for their store of house-linen. Of the 
handsome and elaborate way in which Catharine thought 
of ornamenting the exterior of their house — the home of 
her illustrious husband— a fine specimen remains in the 
door of the Luther-haus at Wittenberg. Luther w^ote, by 
her wish, to a friend at Pirna in 1539, pastor Lauterbach, 
about a ' carved house-door,' for the width of which she sent 
the measurement. The door, carved in sandstone, and 
bearing the date 1540, has on one side Luther's bust and 
on the other his crest, and below are two small seats, built 
there according to the custom of the times. 



LUTHER'S LATER LLFE. 



549 



In view of his approaching death, Luther wished, in 
1542, to provide for his devoted wife by a will. He left her 
for her lifetime and absolute property the little farm of Zuls- 



!l,|t"Jliti .lA/i/jliii ,M iO, 




Fig. 52. — Door of Luther's House at Wittenberg. 

dorf, the small house at Wittenberg (already mentioned), 
and his goblets and other treasures, such as rings, chains, 
&c , which he valued at about 1,000 gulden. In doing so, he 



550 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

thanked her for having been to him a ' pious, true wife at 
all times, full of loving, tender care towards him, and for 
having borne to him and trained, by God's blessing, five 
children surviving.' And he wished to provide therewith 
that she ' must not receive from the children, but the 
children from her ; that they must honour and obey her, 
as God hath commanded.' He further bade her pay off 
the debt which was still owing (probably for the house), 
amounting to about 450 gulden, because, with the exception 
of his few treasures, he had no money to leave her. In 
making this provision he no doubt considered that, accord- 
ing to the law, the inheritance of a married woman who 
had formerly been a nun might be disputed, together with 
the legitimacy of her marriage. Luther did not wish to 
bind himself in his will to legal forms. He besought the 
Elector graciously to protect his bequest, and concluded his 
will with these proud words : 

1 Finally, seeing I do not use legal forms, for which I 
have my own reasons, I desire all men to take these words 
as mine — a man known openly in heaven, on earth, and in 
hell also, who has enough reputation or authority to be 
trusted and believed better than any notary. To me, a 
poor, unworthy, miserable sinner, God, the Father cf all 
mercy, has entrusted the Gospel of His dear Son, and has 
made me true and faithful therein, and has so preserved 
and found me hitherto, that through me many in this 
world have received the Gospel, and hold me as a teacher 
of the truth, despite of the Pope's ban, of emperor, king, 
princes, priests, and all the wrath of the devil. Let them 
believe me also in this small matter, especially as this is 
my hand, not altogether unknown. In hope that it will be 
enough for men to say and prove that this is the earnest, 
deliberate meaning of Dr. Martin Luther, God's notary and 
witness in his Gospel, confirmed by his own hand and seal.' 

The will is dated the day of the Epiphany, January 6, 
1542, and was witnessed by Melancthon, Cruciger, and 



LUTHER'S LATER LIFE. 551 

Bugenhagen, whose attestations and signatures appear 
below. After Luther's death, John Frederick immediately 
ratified it. 

As regards his servants, Luther was particularly careful 
that they should have nothing to complain of against him, 
for the devil, he said, had a sharp eye upon him, to be able 
to cast a slur upon his teaching. To those who served him 
faithfully, he was ever gentle, grateful, and even indulgent. 
There was a certain Wolfgang, or Wolf Sieberger, whom 
he had taken as early as 1517 into his service at the con- 
vent — an honest but weak man, who knew of no other 
means of livelihood. Him Luther retained in his service 
throughout his life, and tried to make some provision for 
his future. He once sought, as we have seen, to practise 
turning with him, but of this nothing further is related. 
He loved, too, to joke with him in his own hearty manner. 
When, in 1534, Wolf built a fowling-floor or place for 
catching birds, he reprimanded him for it in a written 
indictment, making the ' good, honourable ' birds them- 
selves lodge a complaint against him. They pray Luther 
to prevent his servant, or at least to insist upon Wolf 
(who was a sleepy fellow), strewing grain for them in the 
evening, and then not rising before eight o'clock in the 
morning ; else, they would pray to God to make him catch 
in the day-time frogs and snails hi their stead, and let fleas 
and other insects crawl over him at night ; for why should 
not Wolf rather employ his wrath and vinclictiveness 
against the sparrows, claws, mice, and such like ? When a 
servant named Kischmann parted from him, in 1532, after 
several years of hard work, Luther sent word to his wife from 
Torgau, where he was then staying with the Elector, to dis- 
miss him * honourably,' and with a suitable present. ' Think,' 
he wrote, ' how often we have given to bad men, when 
all has been lost ; so be liberal, and do not let such a good 

fellow want Do not fail; for a goblet is there. Think 

from whom you got it. God will give us another, I know.' 



552 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

His guests valued highly his company and conversation, 
especially those men who came from far and near to visit 
him. Several of them have recorded' sayings from his lips 
on these occasions. Luther's ' Table Talk,' which we pos- 
sess now in print, is founded for the most part on records 
given by Veit Dietrich and Lauterbach just mentioned, 
who before his call to Pirna in 1539, when deacon at 
Wittenberg, was one of Luther's closest friends and his 
daily guest. These memorials, however, have been elabor- 
ated and recast many times, by a strange hand, in an 
arbitrary and unfortunate manner. A publication of the 
original text, from which recently a diary of Lauterbach, 
of the year 1538, has already appeared, may now be looked 
for. Last, but not least, we have to mention John Mathesius, 
who, after having been a student at Wittenberg in 1529, 
and then rector of the school at Joachimsthal, returned to 
study at Wittenberg from 1540 to 1542, and obtained the 
honour which he sought for, of being a guest at Luther's 
table. Deeply impressed as he was by his intercourse with 
the Eeformer, he described his impressions to his congre- 
gation at Joachimsthal, when afterwards their pastor, in 
addresses from the pulpit, which were printed, and gave 
them a sketch of Luther's life, with numerous anecdotes 
about him. He thus became Luther's first biographer, 
and, from his personal intimacy with his friend, and his 
own true-heartedness, fervour, and genuineness of nature, 
he must ever remain endeared to the followers and admirers 
of the great Eeformer. 

Mathesius tells us, indeed, how Luther used often to sit 
at table wrapt in deep and anxious thought, and would 
sometimes keep a cloister-like silence throughout the meal. 
At times even he would work between the courses, or at 
meals or immediately after, dictate sermons to friends who 
had to preach, but who wanted practice in the art. But 
when once conversation was opened, it flowed with ease and 
freedom, and, as Mathesius says, even merrily. The friends 



LUTHER'S LATER LIFE. 



553 



used to call Luther's speeches their ' table-spice.' His 
topics varied according to circumstances and the occasion 
— things spiritual and temporal; questions of faith and 




Fig. 53. — Mathesius. (From an old woodcut.) 



conduct ; the works of God and the deeds of man ; events 
past and present ; hints and short practical suggestions for 
ecclesiastical life and office ; and apophthegms of worldly 



554 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

wisdom ; all enriched with proverbs of every kind and 
German rhymes, which Luther had a great aptitude in 
composing. Jocular moods were mingled with deep gravity 
and even indignation. But in all he said, as in all he did, 
he was guided constantly by the loftiest principles, by the 
highest considerations of morality and religious truth, and 
that in the simple and straightforward manner which was 
his nature, utterly free from affectation or artificial effort. 

In these his discourses, it is true, as in his writings and 
letters, nay, sometimes in his addresses from the pulpit, 
expressions and remarks fell occasionally from his lips 
which sound to modern ears extremely coarse. His was a 
frank, rugged nature, with nothing slippery, nothing 
secretly impure about it. His friends and guests spoke of 
the ' chaste lips ' of Luther : ' He was,' says Mathesius, ' a 
foe to unchastity and loose talk. As long as I have been 
with him I have never heard a shameful word fall from his 
lips.' It was a great contrast to the coarse indecencies 
which he denounced with such fierce indignation in the 
monks, his former brethren, as also to the more subtle 
indelicacies which were practised in those days by so many 
elegant Humanists of modern culture, both ecclesiastics 
and laymen. 

Luther's conversation was also remarkable for its 
freedom from any spiteful or frivolous gossip, of which even 
at Wittenberg there was then no lack. Of such scandal- 
mongers, who sought to pry out evil in their neighbours, 
Luther used frequently to say, ' They are regular pigs, 
who care nothing about the roses and violets in the garden, 
but only stick their snouts into the dirt.' 

After dinner there was usually music with the guests 
and children ; sacred and secular songs were sung, together 
with German and sometimes old Latin hymns. 

Luther also had a bowling-alley made for his young 
friends, where they would disport themselves with running 
and jumping. He liked to throw the first ball himself, and 



LUTHER'' S LATER LIFE. 555 

was heartily laughed at when he missed the mark. He 
would turn then to the young folk, and remind them in his 
pleasant way that many a one who thought he would do 
better, and knock down all the pins at once, would very 
likely miss them all, as they would often have to find in 
future their life and calling. 

In his own personal relations towards God, Luther 
followed persistently the road which he saw revealed by 
Christ, and which he pointed out to others. He never lost 
the consciousness of his own unworthiness, and therefore 
unholiness. In this consciousness he sought refuge, with 
simple and childlike faith, in God's love and mercy, which 
thus assured hhn of forgiveness and salvation, of victory 
over the world and the devil, and of the freedom wherewith 
a child of God may use the things of this world. He clung 
fondly to simple, childlike forms of faith, and to common 
rites and ordinances. Every morning he used to repeat 
with his children the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the 
Lord's Prayer, and a psalm. ' I do this,' he says in one of 
his sermons, ' in order to keep up the habit, and not let the 
mildew grow upon me.' He took part faithfully in the 
church services ; he who was wont to pray so unceasingly 
and fervently in his own chamber declared that praying in 
company with others soothed him far more than private 
prayer at home. 

Lofty, nay proud as was the self-assurance he expressed 
in his mission, and though possessed, as Mathesius says, 
of all the heart and courage of a true man, yet he was 
personally of a very plain and unasserting manner : 
Mathesius calls him the most humble of men, always 
willing to follow good advice from others. Like a brother 
he dealt with the lowliest of his brethren, while mixing at 
the same time with the highest in the land with the most 
perfect and unconscious simplicity. Troubled souls, who 
complained to him how hard they found it to possess the 
faith he preached, he comforted with the assurance that it 



556 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

was do easier matter for himself, and that he had to pray 
God daily to increase his faith. His saying, ' A great 
doctor must always remain a pupil,' was meant especially 
for himself. The modesty which made him willing, even 
in the early days of his reforming labours, to yield the first 
place to his younger friend Melancthon, he displayed to the 
end, as we have seen in reference to Melancthon' s principal 
work, the ' Loci Communes.' Whenever he was asked for 
a really good book for theological studies and the pure 
exposition of the gospel, he named the Bible first and then 
Melancthon' s book. During the Diet at Augsburg we heard 
how highly he esteemed the words even of a Brenz, in 
comparison with his own. Touching Melancthon, we must 
add an earlier public utterance of Luther's, dating from 
1529 : 'I must root out,' he said, ' the trunks and stems. 
.... I am the rough woodman who has to make a path, 
but Philip goes quietly and peacefully along it, builds and 
plants, sows and waters at his pleasure.' He said nothing 
of how much others depended on his own power and inde- 
pendence of mind, not only as regarded the task of making 
the path, but in the whole business of planting and working, 
and how Melancthon only stamped the gold which Luther 
had dug up and melted in the furnace. The later years of 
his life were embittered by the conviction, gradually forced 
upon him, that his former strength and energy had deserted 
him. His remarks on this subject seem often exaggerated, 
but they were certainly meant in all seriousness : he felt as 
he did, because the urgent need of completing his task 
remained so vividly impressed upon his mind. He wished 
and hoped that God would suffer him — the now useless 
instrument of His Word — to stand at least behind the doors 
of His kingdom. He wrote to Myconius, when the latter 
was dangerously ill, saying that his friend must really 
survive him : ' I beg this ; I will it, and let my will be done, 
tor it seeks not my own pleasure, but the glory of God.' 
With childlike joy he recognised God's gifts in nature, 



LUTHER S LATER LIFE. 557 

in garden and field, plants and cattle. This joy finds con- 
stant expression in his ' Table Talk,' and even in his ser- 
mons. It was chiefly awakened by the beauties of spring. 
With sorrow he declares it to be the well-earned penalty of 
his past sins that in his old age he should not be able, as 
he might do and had need of doing, on account of the 
burdens of business, to enjoy the gardens, the bud and 
bloom of tree and flower, and the song of the birds. ' We 
should be so happy in such a Paradise, if only there were 
no sin and death.' But he looks beyond this to another 
and a heavenly world, where all would be still more beau- 
tiful, and where an everlasting spring would reign and 
abide. 

Among all the gifts which God has bestowed upon us 
for our use and enjoyment, music was to him the most 
precious ; he even assigned to it the highest honour next 
to theology. He himself had considerable talent for the 
art, and not only played the lute, and sang melodiously 
with his seemingly weak but penetrating voice, but was 
able even to compose. He valued music particularly as 
the means of driving away the devil and his temptations, 
as well as for its softening and refining influence. ' The 
heart,' he said, ' grows satisfied, refreshed, and strength- 
ened by music' He noticed, as a wonder wrought by God, 
how the air was able to give forth, by a slight movement of 
the tongue and throat, guided by the mind, such sweet and 
powerful sounds ; and what an infinite variety there was 
of voice and language among the many thousand birds, 
and still more so among men. Luther's best and most 
valued means of natural refreshment, and the recreation of 
his mind and body, remained always his intercourse and 
friendship with others -with wife and children, with 
his friends and neighbours. Such was his own experience, 
and so he would advise the sorrowful who sought his coun- 
sel in like manner to come out of their solitude. He saw 
in this intercourse also an ordinance of Divine wisdom and 



558 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

love. A friendly talk and a good merry song he often 
declared to be the best weapon against evil and sorrowful 
thoughts. 

About his own bodily care and enjoyment, even with 
all his conviction of Christian liberty and his hostility to 
monkish scruples and sanctity, he cared very little. He 
was content with simple fare, and he would forget to eat 
and drink for days amid the press of work. His friends 
wondered how such a portly frame could be consistent with 
such a very meagre diet, and not one of his hostile con- 
temporaries has ever been able to allege against him that 
he had belied by his own conduct the zeal with which he 
inveighed against the immoderate eating and drinking of 
his fellow- Germans ; but he preserved his Christian liberty 
in this matter. In the evenings he would say to his pupils 
at the supper-table, ' You young fellows, you must drink 
the Elector's health and mine, the old man's, in a bumper. 
We must look for our pillows and bolsters in the tankard.' 
And in his lively and merry entertainments with his friends 
the ' cup that cheers ' was always there. He could even 
call for a toast when he heard bad news, for next to a 
fervent Lord's Prayer and a good heart, there was no better 
antidote, he used to say, to care. 

His physical sufferings were chiefly confined to the 
pains in his head, which never wholly left him, and which 
increased from time to time, with fresh attacks of giddiness 
and fainting. The morning was always his worst time. 
His old enemy, moreover — the stone— returned in 1543 
with alarming severity. Some time since an abscess had 
appeared on his left leg, which seemed at the time to have 
healed. Finding that a fresh breaking out of it seemed to 
relieve his head, his friend Katzeberger, the Elector's 2^hy- 
sician, induced him to have a seton applied, and the issue 
thus kept open. His hair became white. He had long 
been speaking of himself as a prematurely old man, and 
quite worn out. 



LUTHER S LATER LIFE. 



559 



In spite of his sufferings he retained his peculiar bearing, 
with head thrown back and upturned face. His features, 
especially the mouth, now showed more plainly even than 
in earlier life the calm strength acquired by struggles and 
suffering. The pathos which later portraits have often 
given to his countenance is not apparent in the earlier 
ones, but rather an expression of melancholy. The deep 
glow and energy of his spirit, which even Cranach's pencil 
has failed wholly to represent, seems to have found chief 
expression in his dark eyes. These evidently struck the 
old rector of Wittenberg, Pollich, and the legate Caietan at 
Augsburg ; it was with these that, on his arrival at Worms, 
the legate Aleander saw him look around him 'like a 
demon ' ; it was these that ' sparkled like stars ' on the 
young Swiss Kessler, so that he could ' hardly endure their 
gaze.' After his death, another acquaintance of his called 
them ' falcon's eyes ' ; and Melancthon saw in the brown 
pupils, encircled by a yellow ring, the keen, courageous eye 
of a lion. 

This fire in Luther never died. Under the pressure of 
suffering and weakness, it only burst forth when stirred by 
opposition into new and fiercer flames. It became, indeed, 
more easily provoked in later life, and produced in him an 
irritation and restless impatience with the world and all its 
doings. His full and clear gaze was fixed on the Hereafter. 



56© 



CHAPTEE VIII, 
luther's last year and death 

The Emperor Charles, after concluding the peace of Crespy 
with King Francis, turned his policy entirely to ecclesiastical 
affairs. The Pope could no longer resist his urgent demand 
for a Council, and accordingly a hull, of November 1544, 
summoned one to assemble at Trent in the following March. 
With regard to the Turks, the Emperor sought to liberate 
his hands by means of a peaceful settlement and conces- 
sions. He entered into negotiations with them in 1545, in 
which he was supported by an ambassador from France. 
These led ultimately to the result that the Turks left him 
in possession, on payment of a tribute, of those frontier 
fortresses which he still occupied, and which they had pre- 
viously demanded from him, and agreed to a truce for a 
year and a half, ' This is the way,' exclaimed Luther, * in 
which war is now waged against those who have been 
denounced so many years as enemies to the name of Christ, 
and against whom the Eomish Satan has amassed such 
heaps of gold by indulgences and other innumerable means 
of plunder.' 

Meanwhile the Elector John had commissioned his 
theologians to prepare the scheme of reformation which was 
to be submitted according to the decree of the Diet at 
Spires. On January 14, 1545, they sent him a draft compiled 
by Melancthon. Luther headed with his own the list of 
signatures. It was a last great message of peace from 
his hand. The draft set forth clearly and distinctly the 
principles of the Evangelical Church ; but expressed a hope 






LUTHER'S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 561 

that the bishops of the Catholic Church would fulfil the 
duties of their office, and promised them obedience if they 
accepted and furthered the preaching of the gospel in its 
purity. This was too moderate for the Elector. His 
chancellor Brack, however, assured him that Luther and 
the others were agreed with Melancthon, though the docu- 
ment bore no evidence of ' Doctor Martin's restless spirit.' 

Nor did Luther even here insist on that strong expres- 
sion of opinion with regard to the Lord's Supper which he 
himself gave to the doctrine of Christ's Bodily Presence in 
the Sacrament. They only spoke briefly of the ' receiving 
the true Body and Blood of Christ,' and 01 the object and 
benefit of this reception for the soul and for faith. 

But Luther now unburdened his heart with redoubled 
energy and passion against the Pope and the Popedom, of 
which no mention had been made in the draft. In January 
1545 he learned of that Papal letter in which the Holy 
Father had protested to his son the Emperor, with pathetic 
indignation, against the decrees of the Diet at Spires. 
Luther at first took it seriously for a forgery — a mere 
pasquinade — until he was assured by the Elector of the 
genuineness of this and another and similar letter, and 
thus provoked to take public steps against it. He thought 
that, if the brief was genuine, the Pope would sooner wor- 
ship the Turks — nay, the devil himself — than ever dream 
of consenting to a reform in accordance with God's Word. 
Accordingly, he composed his pamphlet ' Against the Pope- 
dom at Rome, instituted by the Devil.' In this his ' rest- 
less spirit ' spoke out once more with all its strength ; he 
poured out the vials of his wrath in the plainest and most 
violent language — more violent than in any of his earlier 
writings — against the Antichrist of Rome. The very first 
word gives the Pope the title of ' the most hellish Father.' 
Luther is not surprised that to him and his Curia the words 
' free Christian German Council ' are sheer poison, death, 
and hell. But he asks him, what is the use of a Council 

o o 



562 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

at all if the Pope arrogates to himself beforehand, as his 
decrees fulminate, the right of altering and tearing up 
its decisions. Far better to spare the expense and trouble 
of such a farce, and say, ' We will believe and worship your 
hellship without any Councils.' The piece of arch-knavery 
practised by the Pope in himself announcing a Council 
against Emperor and Empire was, in fact, nothing new. 
The Popes from the very first had practised all kinds of 
devilish wickedness, treachery, and murder against the 
German Emperors. Luther recalls to mind how a Pope 
had caused the noble Conradin to be executed with the 
sword. Paul III., in his admonition to his ' son ' the 
Emperor Charles, referred in pious strain to the example 
of Eli, the high-priest, who had been punished for not 
rebuking his sons for their sins. Luther now points him 
to his own, the Pope's natural son, whom the Pope was so 
anxious to enrich ; he asks if Father Paul then had nothing 
to punish in him. It was well known what tricks Paul 
himself, with his insatiable maw, was playing together with 
his son with the property of the Church. Further, he puts 
before the Pope his cardinals and followers, who forsooth 
needed no admonition for their detestable iniquities. But 
his dear son Charles, it seemed, had wished to procure for 
the German Fatherland a happy peace and unity in reli- 
gion, and to have a Christian Council, and, finding he had 
been made a fool of by the Pope for four-and-twenty years, 
at last to convene a national Council. This was his sin in 
the eyes of the Pope, who would like to see all Germany 
drowned in her own blood : the Pope could not forgive the 
Emperor for thwarting his horrible design. Luther dwells 
at length on such reflections in his introduction, and then 
says ' I must now stop, for my head is too weak, and I 
have not yet come to what I meant to say in this treatise.' 
This was the three points, as follow : Whether, indeed, it 
was true that the Pope was the head of Christendom ; that 
none could judge and depose him ; and that he had brought 



LUTHER'S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 563 

the Holy Eoman Empire to the Germans, as he boasted so 
arrogantly he had done. On these points he then proceeds 
to enlarge once more with a wealth of searching proof. On 
the last point we hear him speak once more as a true 
German. He wished that the Emperor had left the Pope 
his anointing and coronation, for what made him truly 
Emperor was not these ceremonies, but the election of the 
princes. The Pope had neyer yielded a hairsbreadth to the 
Empire, but, on the contrary, had plundered it immode- 
rately by his lying and deceit and idolatry. The book 
concludes thus : ' This devilish Popery is the supreme evil 
on earth, and the one that touches us most closely ; it is 
one in which all the devils combine together. God help us ! 
Amen.' 

Cranach published a series of sketches or caricatures, 
controversial and satirical, against the Popedom, some of 
which are cynically coarse, one of them representing to his 
countrymen the murder of Conradin, the Pope himself be- 
heading him, and another a German Emperor with the 
Pope standing on his neck. Luther added short verses to 
these pictures. But he disapproved of one of Cranach's 
caricatures, as insulting to woman. 

We have seen already what degree of importance Luther 
attached to a Council appointed by the Pope. The Pro- 
testants could not, of course, consent to submit to the one 
at Trent. On the other hand, their demand that the 
Council must be a ' free ' and a ' Christian ' one in their 
sense of the terms was an impossibility for the Emperor 
and the Catholics ; for it meant not only their independence 
of the Pope — which he could never assent to— but also a 
free reversion to the single rule and standard of Holy 
Scripture, with a possible rejection of tradition and the 
decrees of previous Councils. The Emperor thereupon 
granted something for appearance sake to the Protestant 
States by arranging another conference on religion to be 
held at Eatisbon in January 1546. He told the Pope, in 

2 



564 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

June 1545, that he could not engage to make war on the 
Protestants for at least another year. The Council was 
opened in December 1545, without the Protestants taking 
any part in it. 

While all this was going on, the newly-opened rupture 
between Luther and the Swiss remained unhealed. In the 
spring of 1545 Bullinger published a clever reply to his 
' Short Confession.' It could, however, effect no recon- 
ciliation, for, mild as was its language in comparison with 
the violence of Luther's, it made too much merit of this 
mildness, while, as Calvin, for example, accused the author, 
it imputed more to Luther than common fairness justified, 
took him to task for his manner of speaking, and contributed 
nothing to an understanding in point of dogma. From the 
impression produced by this letter upon Luther, fears were 
entertained again for Melancthon, who had continued to 
miintain a friendly correspondence with Bullinger ; and 
Melancthon himself felt very anxious about the result. But 
not one harsh or suspicious or unkind word was uttered by 
Luther. He only wished to answer the Zurichers briefly 
and to the point, for he had written, he said, quite enough 
on the subject against Zwingli and Oecolanrpadius, and did 
not want to spoil the last years of his life with arrogant and 
idle chatter. He only inserted afterwards in a series of 
theses, with which he replied hi the late summer of that 
year to a fresh condemnation pronounced against him by 
the theologians of Louvain, an article against the Zwin- 
glians, declaring that they and all those who disgraced the 
Sacrament by denying the actual bodily reception of the true 
Body of Christ were undoubtedly heretics and schismatics 
from the Christian Church. This doctrinal antagonism was 
sufficient even now, when the test of actual war was im- 
minent, to keep the Swiss excluded from the League of 
Schmalkald. 

Luther still continued, in the face of menaces, to trust in 
God, his Helper hitherto, and he found in the latest signs of 



LUTHER S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 565 

the times still more convincing proof of the End, which 
seemed to be at hand. In the miserable oppression of 
the Germano-Eoman Empire by the Turks he saw a sign of 
its approaching downfall, as also in the impotence displayed 
by the Imperial Government even in small matters of ad- 
ministration. There was no longer any justice, any govern- 
ment ; it was an Empire without an Empire; and he rejoiced 
to believe that with the end of this Empire the last day — the 
day of salvation — was approaching. 

But more painful and harassing to him than even the 
threats of the Eomanists and the attacks upon his teaching, 
which his own words, he was convinced, had long since 
refuted, was the condition of Wittenberg and the university. 
It was a favourite reproach against him of the Catholics 
that his doctrine yielded no fruits of strict morality. Not- 
withstanding all the rebukes which he had uttered for years, 
we hear of the old vices still rampant at Wittenberg the 
vices of gluttony, of increasing intemperance and luxury, 
especially at baptisms and weddings ; of pride in dress and 
the low-cut bodices of ladies ; of rioting in the streets ; of 
the low women who corrupted the students ; of extortion, 
deceit, and usury in trade ; and of the indifference and in- 
ability of the authorities and the police to put down open 
immorality and misdemeanours. Things of which there 
were growing complaints at that time in the German towns 
and universities became intolerable to the aged Eeformer, 
who had no longer the power' to bring his whole influence 
to bear upon his own fellow-townsmen. 

In the summer of 1545 he was tortured again by his old 
enemy the stone. On Midsummer day his tormentor — as 
he wrote to a friend — would have done for him had God not 
willed it otherwise. - I would rather die,' he adds, ' than be 
at the mercy of such a tyrant.' 

A few weeks later he sought refreshment for mind and 
body in a journey. He first travelled with his colleague 
Cruciger by way of Leipzig to Zeitz, where Cruciger had to 



566 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

settle a dispute between two clergymen. On the road he 
was cordially received by several acquaintances, and that 
did him good. At Zeitz he took part in the proceedings. 
He was anxious to proceed further, to Merseburg, for his 
friend there, George of Anhalt, had seized the opportunity 
to send him a pressing invitation, in order to receive 
from him his consecration. But the painful experiences 
he had made at Wittenberg pursued him on his travels, 
and were aggravated by much that he heard about his 
own town. On July 28 he wrote from Zeitz to his wife, 
saying, ' I should be so glad not to return to Wittenberg ; 
my heart is grown cold, so that I don't care about being 
there any longer. ... So I will roam about and rather 
beg my bread than vex my poor remaining days with the 
disorderly doings at Wittenberg, with my hard and precious 
labour all lost.' He actually wished that they should sell 
the house and garden at Wittenberg, and go and live at 
Zulsdorf. The Elector, he said, would surely leave him his 
salary at least for one year more, near as he was to the 
close of his fast-waning life, and he would spend the 
money in improving his little farm. He begged his wife, 
if she would, to let Bugenhagen and Melancthon know 
this. 

The excitement, however, as might be hoped, was only 
temporary. To quiet his emotion, the university at once sent 
Bugenhagen and Melancthon to him, the Wittenberg magis- 
trate sent the burgomaster, and the Elector his private 
physician Eatzeberger. The Elector also reminded him in 
a friendly manner that he ought to have apprised him 
beforehand of his intention to take this journey, to enable 
him to provide an escort and defray his expenses. The 
Wittenberg theologians, sent as deputies to Merseburg, had 
now arrived there, and met Luther on August 2, at the 
solemn consecration of George. Luther stayed with his 
host for a couple of days, during which he preached in the 
neighbouring town of Halle, and was here presented by the 



LUTHER'S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 567 

town-council with a cup of gold. This journey improved 
his health. After having paid a visit to the Elector, at his 
desire, at Torgau, he returned on the 16th of the month to 
Wittenberg, where an attempt was now being made to put 
down, by an ordinance of police, the immorality he had 
denounced. 

He now resumed his lectures, in which he was still 
busily engaged with the Book of Genesis, and which he 
brought at length to an end on November 17. He also 
preached at Wittenberg several times in the afternoons, it 
being unadvisable for him to do so any longer in the morn- 
ings on account of his health. He further occupied himself 
in writing a sequel to his first book against the Papacy, and 
at the same time meditated a letter against the Sacramen- 
tarians. 

The autumn of this year brought with it a matter from 
Mansfeld, having nothing indeed to do with religion or 
doctrine, but which called him away from Wittenberg. The 
Counts of Mansfeld had long been quarrelling among them- 
selves about certain rights and revenues, especially in 
connection with Church patronage. Luther had already 
entreated them earnestly in God's name to come to a 
peaceful agreement. They now at length agreed so far as 
to invite his mediation, and obtained permission from the 
Elector, who, however, would rather have seen Luther 
spared this trouble. Luther all his life had cherished a 
warm and grateful affection for this his early home ; whilst 
labouring for his great Fatherland of Germany, he called 
Mansfeld his own special fatherland. Wearied as he was, 
he resolved to serve his home once more. 

At the beginning of October, accordingly, he journeyed 
thither with Melancthon and Jonas, but his visit proved in 
vain, since the Counts, before he could do anything for 
them, were called away to war. He held himself in readi- 
ness, however, to make a second attempt. 

In the meantime Luther quickly composed another 



568 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

pamphlet, with reference to the Duke of Brunswick, who 
three years before had been driven from his country by the 
Landgrave Philip and the Saxon princes, and had now 
suddenly invaded it again, but was defeated and taken 
prisoner by the combined forces of the allied princes, 
assisted also by the Counts of Mansfeld. At the instigation 
of the chancellor Briick, and with the consent of his Elector, 
Luther addressed a public letter to the princes and the 
Landgrave, and had it printed. In it he warned them not 
to allow — as Philip for various reasons seemed inclined 
to do — so dangerous a prisoner to go free, and thereby to 
tempt God. Behind the Duke he saw the Pope and the 
Papists, without whom he would never have been able to 
carry on his campaign. They should at any rate wait and 
see until the thoughts of hearts should be further revealed. 
None the less did he warn the victors against self- exaltation 
and arrogance. 

Once more he celebrated his birthday in the circle of his 
friends, Melancthon, Bugenhagen, Cruciger, and some 
others. Just before that day a rich present of wine and 
fish had arrived from the Elector. Luther was very merry 
with his friends, but could not restrain sad thoughts of an 
apostasy from the gospel which might follow with many 
after his death. 

At the conclusion of his lecture on November 17 he said : 
* This is the beloved Genesis ; God grant that after me 
it may be better done. I can do no more — I am weak. 
Pray God that He may grant me a good and happy end.' 
He began no new lectures. 

At Christmas time, then, and in the depth of cold, Luther 
journeyed to Mansfeld with Melancthon. He wished, as he 
wrote to Count Albert, to risk the time and effort, notwith- 
standing the pressing work he had on hand, in order to lay 
himself in peace in his coffin in the place where he had 
previously reconciled his beloved masters. But his wish was 
not to be fulfilled. Anxiety for Melancthon, who was ill, 



LUTHER'S LAST YEAR AND DEATH 569 

urged him home, though he promised to return. On his 
homeward journey, in spite of the continued severity of the 
cold, he preached at Halle, concluding his sermon with the 
words, ' Well, since it is very cold, I will now end. You have 
other good and faithful preachers.' 

He had carefully brought his Melancthon home. When 
now the new conference on religion was to be held at 
Eatisbon, and a Wittenberg theologian was to be sent to it, 
he begged the Elector not to employ his friend again for the 
' useless and idle colloquy,' especially as there was not a 
man among his opponents who was worth anything. 
' What would they do,' he wrote, ' if Philip were dead or ill, 
as indeed he is— so ill that I rejoice to have brought him 
home from Mansfeld. It is his duty henceforth to spare 
himself ; he is better employed in his bed than at the 
Conference. The young doctors must come to the fore and 
take up the word after us.' Of his opponents and their 
designs, he said ' They take us for asses, who don't under- 
stand their vulgar and foolish attacks.' 

He described his own condition, in a letter of January 17, 
in these words : ' Old, spent, worn, weary, cold, and with 
but one eye to see with.' He must have lost therefore the 
sight of one of his eyes, but we know nothing definite 
beyond this. He adds, however, that for his age his health 
was fairly good. 

Melancthon was spared a journey to Eatisbon, as also a 
third visit to Mansfeld. Luther ventured the latter, however, 
in January. He took with him his three sons, together 
with their tutor, and his own servant, that they might become 
acquainted with his beloved native home. When, shortly 
before, some students at his table heard of a strange and 
ominous fall of a large clock at midnight, he said, ' Do not 
fear ;; this means that I shall soon die. I am weary of the 
world, so let us rather part like well-filled guests at a 
common inn.' 

On the 23rd of the month he left Wittenberg, where on 



S7o 



LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 




Fig. 54.— Luther in 1546. (From a woodcut of Cranach.) 



LUTHER S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 



57i 



the previous Sunday, the 17th, he had preached for the 
last time. 

He reached Halle on the 25th, and stayed with Jonas. 
It was probably then that he brought Jonas as a present 
the beautiful white Venetian glass, which is still preserved 
at Nuremberg. The Latin couplet is to this effect : 

Luther this glass, himself a glass, doth on his friend bestow- 
That each himself a brittle glass may by this token know. 




Fig. 55. — Jonas' Glass. 

[The date when the portraits of Luther and Jonas, together with the Latin 
verses and their translation, were executed, is uncertain, (a) Luther. 
(b b) Translation of Luther's verses, (c c) ' Dat vitrum vitro Jonaa vitrum 
ipse Lutherus : Ut vitro fragili similem se noscat uterque.' (d) Jonas.] 

The breaking up of the ice, followed by heavy floods, 
detained him at Halle for three days. The very day after 
his arrival he preached again. He wrote to his wife telling 
her he was cheering himself with good Torgau beer and 
Ehine-wine, till the Saale had done raging. To his friends, 



572 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

however, in company he said, ' Dear friends, we are mighty 
good comrades, we eat and drink together ; but we must all 
die one day. I am now going to Eisleben ;o help my 
masters, the Counts of Mansfeld, to come to terms. Now 
I know how the people are disposed ; when Christ wished to 
reconcile His heavenly Father with mankind, He undertook 
to die for them. God grant that it may be so with me ! ' 

On the 28th the travellers, who were joined by Jonas, 
crossed the dangerous rapids formed by the narrow part of 
the river Saale below the Castle of Giebichenstein, near 
the town, and thus on the same day reached Eisleben, 
where the Counts of Mansfeld, with several other nobles, 
were waiting for Luther. An escort of more than a 
hundred horsemen in heavy armour accompanied him from 
the frontier between the territories of Halle and Mansfeld. 
Just before entering the town, however, be was seized with 
alarming giddiness and faintness, together with a sharp 
constriction of the heart, and much difficulty of breathing. 
He himself ascribed this to a chill, having shortly before 
walked some distance and then re-entered his carriage in a 
perspiration. At the village of Kissdorf, near Eisleben, so 
he wrote to his wife on February 1, such a bitter wind 
pierced his cap at the back of his head, that he felt as if 
his brain were freezing. It was in this letter that he spoke 
of her laughingly as Lady Zulsdorf, &c. ' But now,' he 
added, ' thank God, I am pretty well again, except for the 
heartache caused by the beautiful women.' Only three 
days after this attack he preached at Eisleben. 

Luther was comfortably quartered at th'e Drachstedt, a 
house which had been bought by the town-council, and was 
inhabited by the town-clerk Albert. 

The business was commenced at once, in the very 
house where he was staying. But it was a work of much 
trouble and difficulty for Luther. He sought one way after 
another to effect a reconciliation. On February 6 he 
begged the Elector through Melancthon to send him a 



LUTHER'S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 573 

summons back to Wittenberg, in order to put pressure 
on the Counts to settle their dispute; and a few days 
after he wrote to his wife, saying that he should like to 
grease his carriage-wheels and be off in sheer anger, but 
concern for his native town prevented him. He was 
shocked at the avarice, so ruinous to the soul, which either 
party displayed. He was angry also with the lawyers, 
for backing up each party to stand so stubbornly on his 
imagined rights. He who now ought to have been a lawyer 
himself, came among them as a hobgoblin, who checked 
their pride by the grace of God. 

The multitude of Jews whom Luther met at Eisleben 
and thereabouts were also an annoyance and vexation to 
him. He disliked to see the Counts give room so far to 
men who blasphemed Jesus and Mary, who called the 
Christians changelings, and sucked them dry, nay, would 
gladly kill them all, if they could. He warned even his 
congregation, as a child of their country, not to fall into 
their meshes. 

Amidst all this business, he found time to preach four 
sermons. He partook twice of the sacrament, and con- 
fessed and ordained two clergymen. 

To his wife, who worried herself constantly about him 
and his health, he wrote from Eisleben five times in four- 
teen days. 1 His language to her, even when he hasunplea- 

l A .facsimile of the longest of these letters, bearing date February 7, runs 
as follows: 'Mercy and peace in the Lord. Pray read, dear Katie, the Gospel 
of St. John and the' [marginally 'little'] 'Catechism, of which you once declared 
that you yourself had said all that it contained. For you wish to disquiet 
yourself about your God, just as if He were not Almighty, and able to create 
ten Martin Luthers for one old one drowned perhaps in the Saale, or fallen 
dead by the fireplace, or on Wolf's fowling-floor. Leave me in peace with 
your cares; I have a better protector than you and all the angels. He — my 
Protector — lies in the manger, and hangs upon a Virgin's breast. But He sits 
also at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. Rest, therefore, in peace. 
Amen. 

'I think that hell and all the world must now be free of all the devils 



574 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

sant news to tell, is always full of affection, heartiness, and 
comfort. The humorous way in which he addressed her 
we have noticed before. He told her how well he fares 
with eating and drinking. He referred her to her 
God, in Whose stead she wished to care for him, tc the 
Bible and the small Catechism, of which she had once 
declared that all it contained had been said by her. He 

who have come together here to Eisleben, for my sake it seems. So hard 
and knotty is this business. There are fifty Jews here too ' [marginally ' in 
one house '] , ' as I wrote to you before. It is now said that at Eissdorff, 
hard by Eisleben, where I fell ill before my arrival, more than four hundred 
Jews were walking and riding about. Count Albert, who owns all the coun- 
try round Eisleben, has seized them upon his property, and will have 
nothing to do with them. No one has done them any harm as yet. The 
widowed Countess of Mansfeld (the Countess Dorothea, widow of Count 
Ernest, born Countess of Solms), is thought to be the protectress of the 
Jews. I don't know whether it is true, but I have given my opinion in 
quarters where I hope it will be attended to. It is a case of Beg, Beg, Beg, 
and helping them. For I had it in my mind to-day to grease my carriage 
wheels in ird med. But I felt the misery of it too much ; my native home 
held me back. I have been made a lawyer, but they will not gain by it. 
They had better have let me remain a theologian. If I live and come 
among them, I might become a hobgoblin, who would comb down their 
pride by the grace of God. They behave as if they were God Himself, but 
must take care to shake off these notions in good time before their god- 
head becomes a devilhead, as happened to Lucifer, who could not remain 
in heaven for pride. Well, God's will be done. Let Master Philip see this 
letter, for I had no time to write to him ; and you may comfort yourself 
with the thought how much I love you, as you know. And Philip will 
understand it all. 

' We live here very well, and the town-council gives me for each meal 
half a pint of " Beinfall " ' [marginally, ' which is very good '] . ' Some- 
times I drink it with my friends. The wine of the country here is also 
good, and Naumburg beer is very good, though I fancy its pitch fills my 
chest with phlegm. The devil has spoilt all the beer in the world with his 
pitch, and the wine with his brimstone. But here the wine is pure, such 
as the country gives. 

' And know that all letters you have written have arrived, and to-day 
those have come which you wrote last Friday, together with Master Philip's 
letters, so you need not be angry. 

Sunday after St. Dorothea's Day (7 February) 1546. 

' Your loving 

' Martin Luthee, D. 5 



LUTHER'S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 575 

had also dangers to tell her of, which had assailed him 
even while thus under her care. A fire chanced to break 
out in a chimney near his room ; and on February 9, so he 
writes to her, notwithstanding all her care, a stone as long 
as a pillow and as thick as two hands, had nearly toppled 
down upon his head and crushed him. So he now takes 
care to say, ' While you cease not to care for us, the earth 
at length might swallow us up, and all the elements destroy 
us.' 

Luther kept up also at Eisleben his correspondence with 

fa ^^0*^/4^) 

Fig. 56.— Address of Luther's Letter of February 7. 

(' To my beloved housewife, Catharine Lady Luther, Lady Doctor, Lady 
of the Pigmarket at Wittenberg ; my gracious wife, bound hand and 
foot in loving service.') 

Melancthon. He wrote to him three letters, the last testi- 
mony of his friendship. A letter to his 'kind, dear housewife,' 
and one to Melancthon, his ' most worthy brother in Christ,' 
both of February 14, are without doubt the last he ever 
wrote. His sick body was well nursed and tended at Eis- 
leben. He went to bed early every night, after he had stood 
before his window, according to his old habit, in fervent 



576 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

prayer. The stone no longer troubled him, but he was 
very weary and worn. His last sermon, on Sunday, Febru- 
ary 14, he broke off with the words : ' This and much more 
is to be said about the Gospel ; but I am too weak, we will 
leave off here.' Most unfortunately for him, he had 
omitted to bring with him to Eisleben the applications 
used for keeping his issue open, and now it was nearly 
closed. He knew that the physicians considered this 
extremely dangerous. 

At length his efforts to mediate between his masters the 
Counts were crowned with success beyond all expectation. 
On February 14 a reconciliation was effected upon the chief 
points, and the various members of the Counts' families 
rejoiced, while the young lords and ladies made merry all 
together. ' Therefore,' wrote Luther to Kathe, ' it must be 
seen that God is Exauditor precum.' He sent her some 
trout as a thankofferiilg from Countess Albert. He wrote 
to her : ' We hope to return home this week, if God will.' 

On the 16th and 17th of that month the reconciliation 
upon all the points of dispute was formally concluded. The 
revenues of churches and schools were fixed upon, and the 
latter to this day owe a rich endowment to the arrange- 
ments there made. On the 16th Luther says in his ' Table 
Talk ' : ' I will now no longer tarry, but set myself to go to 
Wittenberg and there lay myself in a coffin and give the 
worms a fat doctor to feed upon.' 

On the morning of the 17th, however, the Counts found 
themselves compelled, by Luther's state of health, to en- 
treat him not to exert himself any longer with their affairs ; 
and so he only added his signature where required. To 
Jonas and the Counts' court-preacher Colius, who were 
staying with him, he said he thought he should remain at 
Eisleben, where he was born. Before supper he complained 
of oppression of the chest, and had himself rubbed with 
warm cloths. This relieved him, and he left his little room, 
going down the staircase into the public room to join the 



LUTHER >S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 577 

party at supper. ' There is no pleasure,' he said, ' in being 
alone.' At supper he was merry with the rest, and talked 
with his usual energy on various subjects— now jocular or 
serious, now intellectual and pious. But no sooner had he 
returned to his chamber and finished his usual evening 
prayer than he again became anxious and troubled. After 
being rubbed again with warm cloths and having taken a 
medicine which Count Albert himself had brought him, he 
laid himself down about nine o'clock on a leathern sofa 
and slept gently for an hour and a half. On awakening, 
he arose, and with the words (spoken in Latin) ' Into Thy 
hands I commend my spirit, for Thou hast redeemed me, 
Thou God of truth,' went to his bed in the adjoining room, 
where he again slept, breathing quietly, till one o'clock. 
He then awoke, called his servant, and begged him to heat 
the room, though it was quite warm already, and then 
exclaimed to Jonas, ' Lord God, how ill I am ! Ah ! I 
feel I shall remain here at Eisleben, where I was born and 
baptized.' In this state of pain he arose, walked without 
assistance into the room which he had left a few hours 
before, again commending his soul to God ; and then, after 
pacing once up and down the room, lay down once more on 
the sofa, complaining again of the oppression on his chest. 
His two sons, Martin and Paul, remained with him all 
night. They had spent most of the time at Mansfeld with 
their relations there, but had now returned to their father 
(Hans was still absent), and his servant and Jonas. Colius 
also hastened to him, and the young theologian John Auri- 
faber, a friend of the two Counts who used to associate with 
Luther together with Jonas and Colius. The town-clerk was 
there, too, with his wife, also two physicians, and Count 
Albert and his wife, who busied herself zealously with 
nursing the sick man ; and later on came a Count of 
Schwarzburg with his wife, who were staying on a visit 
with the Count of Mansfeld. The rubbing and application 
of warm cloths and the medicines were now of no avail to 

p p 



578 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

ease Luther's anguish. He broke out into a sweat. His 
friends began to feel more happy about him, hoping that 
this would relieve him ; but he replied, ' It is the cold 
sweat of death ; I shall yield up my spirit.' Then he began 
to give thanks aloud to God, Who had revealed to him His 
Son, Whom he had confessed and loved, and Whom the 
godless and the Pope blasphemed and insulted. He cried 
aloud to God and to the Lord Jesus : ' Take my poor 
soul into •Thy hands ! Although I must leave this body, I 
know that I shall be ever with Thee.' He then spoke 
words of the Bible, three times uttering the text of St. John 
hi. : ' God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life.' After Colius had given him one 
more spoonful of medicine, he said again, ' I am going, 
and shall render up my spirit,' and three times rapidly in 
succession he said in Latin, ' Father, into Thy hands I 
commend my spirit, for Thou hast redeemed me, Lord 
God of truth.' From that time he remained quite still, 
and closed his eyes, without making any answer when 
spoken to by those around him, who were busy with re- 
storatives. Jonas and Colius, however, after his pulse had 
been rubbed with strengthening waters, said aloud in his 
ear : ' Eeverend father (Reverende pater), wilt thou stand by 
Christ and the doctrine thou hast preached ? ' He 
uttered an audible 'Yes.' He then turned upon his right 
side and fell asleep. He lay thus for nearly a quarter of 
an hour, when his feet and nose grew cold ; he fetched one 
deep, even breath, and was gone. It was between two and 
three o'clock in the morning of February 18— a Thursday. 

The body was laid in a white garment, first upon a bed, 
and then in a hastily-made leaden coffin. Many hundreds, 
high and low, came to see it. The next morning the face 
was painted by an Eisleben artist, and the morning after 
that by Lucas Fortenagel of Halle. Fortenagel's portrait 
is no doubt a foundation of all those which we find in 



LUTHER S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 579 

several places under Cranach's name, and which no doubt 
really came from Cranach's studio. 

The Elector John Frederick at once insisted that the 
mortal remaiiib of Luther should rest at Wittenberg. The 
Counts of Mansfeld wished at least to pay them the last 
honours. After they had been brought, on the afternoon of 
the 19th, into the Church of St. Andrew, where a sermon 
was preached by Jonas that day, and another by Colius on 




Fig. 57. — Ltjther after Death. (From a picture ascribed to Cranach.) 

the following morning, a solemn procession started at noon 
on the 20th, with the coffin, for its destination. In front 
rode a troop of about fifty light -armed cavalry, with 
sons of both the Counts, to accompany the body to its last 
resting-place. All the Counts and Countesses, with their 
guests, followed as far as the gates of Eisleben, and among 
them was a Prince of Anhalt, the magistrates, the school- 
children, and the whole population of the surrounding 
country. 

pp2 



580 



LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 



In all the villages on the road the bells tolled, and old 
and young flocked to join the procession. At Halle the 
coffin was received with great solemnity, and placed for the 
night of the 20th in the principal church of the town. 
There a cast was taken in wax, which is preserved in the 




Fig. 58. — Cast of Lutheb after Death. (At Halle.) 

library of the church ; the original features, however, 
having been altered by putting in . the eyes and improving 
the shape of the mouth. To complete our picture of 
Luther's outward appearance, we have in this cast the 
remarkably strong brow, which in Cranach's portraits of 
Luther often recedes out of all proportion in his upturned 



LUTHER S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 581 

face. The two representations of Luther when dead are of 
great value, deeply as it must be lamented that no more 
skilful hands than those of the painter of Halle and the 
wax-modeller have had the privilege of working upon them. 

On the 21st the corpse was taken to Kemberg, after 
being received at the frontier of the Electorate by deputies 
from the Elector. On the morning of the 22nd it reached 
Wittenberg, where it was at once taken to the Castle 
Church in solemn procession through the whole length of 
the town. It was a long, sad procession. First went the 
nobles representing the Elector, then the horsemen from 
Mansfeld and their young Counts, and immediately after 
the coffin the widow in a little carriage with some other 
gentlewomen. Then followed Luther's sons and his brother 
James, with other relatives from Mansfeld ; then the Uni- 
versity, the members of the Town Council, and all the 
citizens of Wittenberg. In the church Bugenhagen preached 
a sermon, and Melancthon, who, on the arrival of the sad 
news, had expressed his grief in a charge to the students, 
gave a Latin oration as representative of the University. 
Then, near the spot where the great Eeformer had once 
nailed up his theses, the body was lowered into the grave. 

Throughout the whole Evangelical Church arose a cry of 
lamentation. Luther was mourned as a prophet of Germany 
— as an Elijah who had overthrown the worship of idols and 
set up again the pure Word of God. Like Elisha to Elijah, 
so Melancthon called out after him, ' Alas ! the chariot of 
Israel and the horsemen thereof ! ' On the other hand, 
fanatical Papists were not ashamed to insult his very death- 
bed with slanders and falsehoods; even a year before he 
died a silly, sensational story of his death was spread about 
by them. 

Luther throughout his life and labours had never 
troubled himself much about the praise or the abuse of men. 
After the example of his great teacher St. Paul, he went his 
way in honour and dishonour, through evil report and good 



582 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS. 

report, along the road which he knew to be pointed out from 
above. The portrait of his life, plain and unadorned as it 
is presented to the present age, will at any rate testify to 
the worth of this great man, and thus do something towards 
that eternal end for which he was ready to sacrifice his life 
and, in the eyes of the world, his honour and his fame. 



APPENDIX 



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APPENDIX A. 



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